Blood Is
by eiahmon
Summary: Lords of Shadow Continuity: Alternate Universe to Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2: Trevor wasn't the only one who had the truth of his parentage kept from him by the Brotherhood.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to mention that I don't own Castlevania? If I did, we would have gotten to see Julius curbstomp Dracula, the storyline would have been neatened up a bit, and Dracula and Alucard would have just HUGGED already after the reveal in Lords of Shadow 2. **

**A/N: This is what happens when Fridge Horror strikes. If you don't know what that is, look it up on TV Tropes and Idioms.**

**Prologue**

Wolfram Cronqvist smiled broadly as he walked through the halls of his family's manor. As he walked, the servants and few other members of the family returned his smile. It was rare to see such an open, honest expression on Lord Cronqvist's face; normally he was serious and stern, with only his wife seeing the softer side of his personality.

But today was a special occasion.

As he approached the master's chambers, his wife's maid smiled widely at him and opened the double doors for him. He walked through into his bedroom, whereupon he came upon the source of his unusual openness. His wife, the Lady Edeline Cronqvist, sat propped up on pillows in their bed, cradling a small blanket wrapped bundle in her arms. She looked up at him as he approached, and her smile mirrored his own. He sat down beside her and looked eagerly at what she held in her arms.

"Is it..?" he asked eagerly, and Edeline's smile widened.

"It is." she replied "A boy, our son." She carefully held the newborn out to him, and he gently gathered the child into his arms.

The tiny infant, sporting a cap of downy brown hair and eyes of soft green, looked up at his father for a moment, and Wolfram was unprepared for the surge of emotion that ran through him then. A baby, a _life_, that he and Edeline had created. To think that he had helped create the child in his arms... it was wondrous. It was a _miracle_.

"Hello there, little one." he said. "I'm your papa." He gently ran a finger down his son's soft cheek, and he laughed quietly when the infant turned his head and tried to suck on it. "My son..."

He ignored the sting of tears in his eyes then, but he felt no shame at crying so openly. He and Edeline had been trying for years to have a child, but every pregnancy had ended in either miscarriage or a premature birth, with the infant dying shortly after. Without a clear heir, the rest of the Cronqvists had been circling like wolves, salivating in anticipation, and some had recommended that he annul his marriage and find a different wife, one that was capable of carrying a child to term.

He and Edeline had been cradle betrothed, but they had been lucky in that they had known each other their entire lives and had already fallen in love long before they exchanged their wedding vows. The first miscarriage, less than four months after their wedding, had been disheartening, but they had tried again, believing it was just one time incident. But then the second pregnancy had also ended in miscarriage, followed two years later by a third pregnancy that ended three months too soon. That infant, a girl, had lived only a few minutes. Three years later, Edeline had delivered another baby, this time a boy, prematurely, and that infant had been stillborn. Finally, ten years after their marriage, Edeline had miscarried again, and it had left her so heartbroken that she swore never to try again. Wolfram hadn't been able to object, because privately, he agreed with her.

Not long after that, Wolfram's father had died, and he had become the head of the family, and that was when the wolves had began circling. Whispers had followed him as he walked the halls of his home, of how his wife couldn't carry a child and how the family was going to fall apart due to infighting once he was gone. He had grit his teeth and ignored them, but...

… he feared that they were right. Without an heir to pass the headship down to, either someone in the family would have to claim it, or he would have to appoint someone, and Wolfram hadn't seen either one of those options working out well. It still wouldn't have prevented infighting among those who wanted it for themselves. He had though briefly of having his wife fake a pregnancy while he fathered a child with another woman and then passed the child off as his wife's, but he had quickly discarded that. He couldn't imagine lying with another woman. He had even considered, while lying wide awake in bed one late one night, adopting a peasant's unwanted child and passing it off as his own. Of course, that would also require that Edeline fake a pregnancy, and he couldn't ask that of her.

He had admitted to himself though, that he wasn't totally opposed to taking in someone else's child. He wanted more than just an heir to keep the family from collapsing in on itself, he wanted a son or daughter to love, so he could watch him or her grow, be proud of their accomplishments, to hear a small voice call him "Papa," and to feel a pair of little arms hugging him around the neck.

He hadn't dared to hope when Edeline had quietly told him that she was pregnant for the sixth time. The doctor and midwife had ordered her to bed for the duration in the hopes that this time, she would carry to term, but he had refused to believe it would work. He couldn't bear having his heart broken and his hopes dashed again.

The months of her pregnancy had rolled by as they moved through the fall and winter, and as spring approached, he allowed himself to hope, just a tiny bit, that this one would make it. He'd been called away to deal with a problem on the edge of their lands, and it wasn't until he'd begun the return journey home, that he had received the news that he had been equally looking forward to and dreading.

Edeline's labor had begun, and he had ordered the carriage driver to take him home with all possible haste, fearing that it was too late to do anything, that his child would die like all the others. He had prayed to God all the way home, pleading for the life of his child, begging that it and his wife would come through the delivery safely, offering himself in exchange if the Lord saw fit. It wasn't until he had alighted from the carriage in front of his home that he had received the glorious news: his wife had delivered safely, and the newborn was healthy and strong. And now...

He smiled down at the sleeping baby in his arms, scarcely able to believe that, after years of trying, they finally had a son to call their own.

"He looks like his father." Edeline said with a soft smile, and he couldn't help but smile again as he looked up at her.

"But he has his mother's eyes." he replied.

There was a whimper, and Wolfram looked down at his son just as the baby opened his mouth and let out a wail that he was sure could be heard all over the house.

"He has strong lungs." he said with amusement, and Edeline chuckled and held her arms out.

"Hand him here, my lord. I know what he wants."

He carefully placed the crying infant in his wife's outstretched arms and watched with a blissful smile as she nursed him. He scooted closer to her, leaned over, and kissed her on the cheek. She looked up at him with a warm smile, and he gently reached up and brushed some stray strands of her blond hair out of her face.

"Have I told you recently how much I love you?" he asked her quietly over the sounds of their son suckling.

"Not recently, no," she said impishly. "I could stand to hear it again."

He looked deeply into her green eyes. "I love you so much. You've given me everything; your love, years of happiness, and now," He let his gaze drop down to his son, lying cradled in Edeline's right arm. "you've given me this precious jewel, a son, _our_ son."

"Yes," she whispered "our son." The impish smile made a reappearance. "You know this is going to have some frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs."

Wolfram sat up and laughed. "Let them." he said. "I look forward to it." He looked down at his son again, and gently ran his hand over the wisps soft brown hair.

"What shall we name him?" Edeline asked, as the baby finished nursing.

Wolfram frowned in thought for a moment. True, he hadn't given much thought to names, since he hadn't been expecting the child to survive, like his siblings before him, but...

"How about..." he began "we name him... Mathias?"

"Isn't that a variation of Mathew?"

"Yes, it is Germanic, and it means 'Gift of God'. I think it rather fitting for out little miracle, don't you agree?"

Edeline looked down at their son and frowned thoughtfully for a moment. "Yes, it fits rather well." She gently tucked the swaddled blanket around the baby's shoulders. "Hello, Mathias."

"Welcome to the world, Mathias." Wolfram said as he gently ran his hand over the infant's head again. "Welcome home."

**OOOOOO**

It's just a party, Wolfram told himself for at least the dozenth time. You've been to plenty of them, and being a new father is not a good enough reason to stay at home.

The Lord Cronqvist repressed a sigh as he looked around. He was seated at a massive table, which practically groaned under the weight of the sumptuous feast that covered its surface. Beside him sat Edeline, and she looked every bit as bored with the party as he was. It was true that they had been to several of these over the years and would likely attend several more before their lives were over, but they never before had a newborn son waiting on them at home.

It had been only four days since Mathias' birth, and Wolfram already couldn't imagine his life without his beautiful baby boy, but as he already knew, having a child at home is not an acceptable reason for skipping a neighboring lord's party. He wasn't even sure what the party was for, and truthfully, he didn't care. All he cared about was getting through it so he could go back home and see his boy again. Who knew what was going on in his absence...

Stop it, he told himself. Mathias is fine. He has a nurse to look after him and many doting guards and relatives to ensure his safety. His announcement the day after his birth had gone surprisingly well, with only a few people annoyed at his existence, those that would have inherited had Wolfram died without an heir, but those few had been part of a tiny minority. The rest of the family had been pleased that there was someone to inherit and take the reins when Wolfram passed on.

Edeline sighed quietly over the merriment going on around them, and he turned to look at her. Just looking at her face told him that she too was counting down the hours until they could return home. Hopefully this party wouldn't run too late into the night...

So absorbed in his thoughts, he barely heard his name being spoken, and it wasn't until one of the other lord's servants came up to his and whispered urgently in his ear that he paid attention.

"A messenger arrived from you home, my lord." the servant whispered "You must return home immediately; something has happened. It concerns your son."

Wolfram bolted up from his chair so fast that he nearly knocked it over, and everyone at the table turned to look at him. He didn't bother to make any excuses; instead he only pulled Edeline up from her own chair, and the pair of them nearly ran out of the dining hall. The encountered the messenger in the entrance hall, and he fell into step with them as they left the other lord's house and headed through a light drizzle towards their waiting carriage.

"What has happened?" Wolfram asked as he helped Edeline into the carriage.

"The house was attacked by a large organized group of men in red hooded cloaks." the messenger responded "They caught us by surprise, and they killed anyone that stood in their way. They headed..." The messenger took a deep breath. "They headed straight for the little master's nursery."

Wolfram didn't need to hear any more. He climbed up into the carriage after his wife and shouted for the driver to make all haste home.

The ride between their home and the neighboring lord's normally took only an hour or so, but on this night, it seemed to stretch on for an eternity as he and Edeline fretted about what had happened and the safety of their son. When the carriage finally rolled to a stop, he didn't wait for the footman to open the door. He threw it open himself and bolted up the drive towards his house. Right away, he began to see signs of the struggle that had taken place. The two guardsmen that kept watch at the door were lying dead in the grass with their throats cut. Behind him, he heard Edeline gasp in horror, but he ignored her as he ran into the house.

The front entrance looked like a battle had taken place, with splashes of blood on the walls and floor, furniture overturned, pictures slashed and knocked off the walls, and banners with their family crest torn down. There were a handful of covered bodies lying about, but none of them were wearing the red cloaks mentioned by the messenger.

Further on, he found servants milling about, discussing what had happened, and all of them looked at him in fright as he moved past them. He also encountered other members of the family, but they refused to tell him what had happened and urged him on. He came across other bodies as he ran through the house, all of them either servants, guardsmen, or, in a few cases, family. He knew he should stop, take stock of what happened, and get the full story from someone, but he couldn't. He _had_ to see Mathias. He _had_ to make sure his son was all right.

The hope though, of finding his son alive and unhurt was fading rapidly as he neared the nursery. The closer he got to that room, the more bodies he found, as though they had realized where the attackers were heading and had tried to stop them. When he finally reached the nursery, he found the door torn from its leather hinges and the men that had tried to protect it dead, with vicious stab wounds through their chests. He carefully stepped over them, heart hammering in terror at what he was going to find, and he found Mathias' nurse lying dead just inside the door. From the bruises and deep cuts on her arms and hands, the young woman had likely put up a ferocious fight to protect her charge before a single deep slice to her neck had ended her life.

He dimly realized that the drizzle outside had turned into a torrential downpour that was hammering against the windows as he forced himself to step up to Mathias' cradle, which sat in front of the fireplace to better keep the infant warm during the still chilly nights. A flash of lightning from an approaching storm illuminated the room well enough for him to see that..

.. it was empty.

Wolfram stared at the empty cradle for a moment, not comprehending what he was seeing. Behind him, he heard Edeline run into the room, and he heard her cry out when she saw the dead nurse on the floor and the empty cradle. Another flash of lightning, and Wolfram looked around, peering into every corner of the nursery, hoping to see Mathias, hoping to find that the boy's nurse had hidden him before the attackers has reached them. He heard Edeline weeping, and he wanted to snap at her to stop crying, because their son wasn't gone! He was just hidden! They just to find where his nurse had put him and...!

"Mathias!" he called as he dug through the wreckage that only a few hours ago had been a comfortable, well appointed nursery. "Mathias!" He moved furniture around, he tossed torn paintings aside, he even moved the nurse's body, but there was no sign of his son. No cries, no whines, no whimpers, nothing to show that the baby was still in the room. "Mathias!"

No, no, no, no, this couldn't be happening! This couldn't be real! Why would anyone take his son! Why? Frantic now, he pulled the blankets out of the cradle, yanked the rug up off the floor, and looked into every corner of the room, but Mathias wasn't there. He ran to the window and unlatched it; maybe someone out on the grounds had him, maybe...

"Mathias!" His call was drowned out by the roar of thunder. "Mathias!" There was nothing, nothing but the rain and wind and thunder and an empty cradle by the fireplace.

"MATHIAS!"

**OOOOOO**

**A/N 2: I don't know how fast this one is going to update. I wasn't going to post it yet until I had a better idea of where was going, since I only have the ending, and not much in the way of an idea on how to get there, but I really like this idea. Hopefully, posting it will force me to keep working on it. **


	2. Family: 1

**A/N: To TatteredSeraphim, AMoS has been enjoying a steady update rate since early May, so if you want to get some reading in there, check out the links on my profile to head to my livejournal.**

**A/N: Rhythm and BOOM, Fireworks! Happy Fourth, America! **

**1.**

There were so many of them, he thought. Had God made them all, or had He enlisted the help of the angels to put them all there? Had his namesake assisted as well?

The stars glittered down from the night sky, and to him it almost seemed as though they were laughing at him, like they found his questions amusing.

_We're here because the Almighty wants us here,_ he though he could hear them say.

Did they see everything? Did they hear everything? Did they know the truth of his parents? Were they watching the night that he had been left on the doorstep of the Brotherhood compound as an infant? Did they know why his parents had abandoned him? Had they not wanted him? Had they been unable to care for him and wanted him to have a better life? He'd heard the rumors that he was an unwanted bastard, but he liked to imagine that he'd been stolen, spirited away from his loving parents for some nefarious purpose and then abandoned for whatever reason.

The alternative - that his parents simply hadn't wanted him - was not something that his six year old mind liked to think about.

He knew he should be grateful; his elders told him so. He had been found in time. If it hadn't been for that last minute check at the door, he wouldn't have been discovered until morning, and he likely wouldn't have survived the chilly night. He had a roof over his head, a warm place to sleep, regular meals, and he was being educated. Already he could read and write a little, and he knew his numbers and letters.

He was also being schooled in the art of combat, and he had heard his teachers say that he was very tal-lan-ted, whatever that meant. He was pretty certain that it was a good thing. He enjoyed his lessons (Even if the book lessons were kinda boring sometimes.), and he enjoyed running through the fields after his lessons were done for the day. He liked the company of his elders too, because they were nice to him, and because they had saved his life. He enjoyed sitting with them in the large dining hall where they all took their meals together as they told stories of places they had been and battles they had fought. Sometimes he would tell his own stories, and they would laugh and pat him on the head. Sometimes his stories got him into trouble, ("Honest, Master Liam, a great big dragon came out from under my bed! And it swallowed the scroll that I had been practicing my letters on with one gulp!") but normally they just made his elders happy.

He yawned and rubbed at his eyes. He should be in bed, he knew. He'd been sent to be hours ago, and he was tired, but he couldn't stop looking up at the stars. The stories they could tell, if only someone could speak to them...

Too late he heard his door opening, so before he could flop back down onto his feather mattress and pretend to be asleep, one of his teachers stepped in.

"Gabriel," Master Cecil, his combat teacher, said with a disapproving frown. "Why aren't you asleep, young man? You have to be up early tomorrow, so we can go on that training expedition to the mountains."

Gabriel ducked his head. Normally Master Cecil had such a kind face, with his graying hair, and deep set gray eyes that peered out of a face that was aged and weathered from years of being out in the sun, but tonight that kindly look was missing as he stared down at his student. Gabriel had only been to the mountains once or twice, but he loved them, so when he'd been told that he was going with a few others to camp in them for a few days, he'd been too excited to sleep.

"I couldn't sleep, Master Cecil." he said quietly, knowing that he was a hairsbreadth from being forbidden from going. "I was too excited."

"Then why aren't you lying down and trying to sleep instead of staring at the stars?"

To this Gabriel had no answer, and he looked up at his teacher and gave him a meek smile, something that always made the cook melt and give him extra treats whenever he visited the kitchen.

Master Cecil wasn't moved however. He simply pointed to Gabriel's bed. "Bed, Gabriel, and I had better not catch you out of it again tonight, or it will be no expedition for you tomorrow. Am I clear?"

Gabriel nodded silently as he took his arms off the windowsill and dropped lightly to his bed. The ropes that supported the mattress creaked under his weight as he crawled under his fur blanket and laid down. Master Cecil gave him an approving nod and turned to walk out of the room.

"Master Cecil?" The man paused and turned to look at him, and Gabriel licked his lips nervously before he soldiered on. "Do you think that.. before we leave... I'll be able to visit the friend I made today?"

For a second he thought his teacher was going to smile. "No, Gabriel, we'll be leaving far too early for that. You'll be able to see her when we get back. Now go to sleep. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

His teacher walked out of the room then, and Gabriel snuggled down under his blanket and closed his eyes. He couldn't wait for tomorrow to come, and, even though he really loved being in the mountains, he also couldn't wait until he got back, because then he would see his friend again! He'd never had a friend before, but he'd met her while running through the meadow behind the stable. She'd been picking flowers, and he, not watching where he was going, had run right into her, knocking them both down. He'd helped her up, because that's what his teachers told him he should do if he ever encountered a girl on the ground or floor (Though he didn't know until he'd knocked her down why they would be on the ground of floor to begin with.) and apologized, (Because again, that's what his teachers told him he should do if he ever bumped into a lady.) and she had smiled at him.

One of his minders had come to get him hours later, because he had not returned home at his usual time, and had found him happily playing with his new friend. As was proper, they saw his new friend safely to her parents, and then they had gone home, with Gabriel chattering all the while about his friend and all the fun they had had playing together. What had she said her name was? Oh that's right, it was...

**OOOOOO**

"Marie!" the vampire wailed as he woke up from his tortured sleep. He sat up and held his head in his hands, as if he was trying to hold himself together. Why, why, why WHY? After everything he had done, after all he had sacrificed, why must he be forced to dream of things before they went so wrong?

"Why!" he howled in grief and rage as he slammed his fist to the stone floor, cracking it. "You take everything from me, and now you make me think of it! When will it stop!" He raised himself up on his knees and raised his head to look at the ceiling as his anger drained way, leaving on the grief in its place. "Why?" His immortal body shook with sobs as tears made his way down his face, and he swayed to the side and collapsed onto the floor, and like they had every night since he had taken refuge here, the voices came.

_We will never leave you. _

_We will always be with you._

_You belong with us._

_This is your home now._

They whispered to him, and he imagined that he could feel hands caressing his skin and hair, but in no way could the touches be considered comforting. They made his skin crawl, and he shivered and tried to ignore them, but they refused to go away. He shuddered and pushed himself up off the floor. He needed to feed, and as long as he was moving, the touches stopped.

He didn't need to go far; blood was everywhere he looked: in vases, in jars, in basins, tubs, cups, bowls, everywhere. He didn't know where it came from, but it slaked his thirst and allowed him to stay within the dark confines of the castle. After becoming a vampire and absorbing the power of the Forgotten One, he did not wish to venture out among the living.

_We will take care of you. _

Thirst sated for the moment, he wandered through the silent halls of the castle, with only his footfalls and the occasional whisper for company. There was nothing for him to do, and he found nothing to distract himself with. The shadows played against the walls as he walked, and the flames on the candles danced at his approach and dimmed as he passed by. Part of his newfound power he supposed. The statues seemed almost alive to his eyes, and they seemed to move as his gaze passed over them. He quickly turned his head and averted his eyes. It was unnerving.

_Gabriel..._

He shook his head. "No, leave me alone."

_Gabriel..._

"Leave me be."

_Gabriel... You can't ignore us forever, Gabriel. _

He stopped and wrapped his arms around himself as he shivered. "Go away," he said roughly. He didn't know where the voices were coming from; at times they seemed to be coming from the very walls that sheltered him from the outside world, and he hated them in a way that rivaled his hatred of Zobek. Was this God's reward for his work?

An invisible had ran through his hair. _My lord..._

"Stop!" he yelled, and his voice echoed off the stone walls and rattled the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

_We only want to care for you, my lord._

"I'm not your lord!" he yelled as he felt a lump forming in his throat. "I'm nothing." He slumped to the floor as his knees gave out. "Nothing at.. all."

_But you are._ More hands touched him, on his face, his neck, his shoulders. _You are everything. We need you. We want you to stay with us. _

"No!" he screamed. "Leave me alone!"

He pushed himself to his feet, and he stumbled for a moment before he began to run, away from the touches, away from the voices, away from everything.

_You cannot run away, my lord._

He ran, faster than a human ever could, through the halls and rooms of the castle, not paying any attention to where he was going. Rooms were a blur as he streaked through, hallways were just swatches of color as he ran down them.

_Please stay with us._

"Stay away from me!" he sobbed as he realized he was crying again "Go away!"

A door slammed as he ran past it, and the loud noise echoed through the empty space as he darted down an hallway lined with them. They slammed closed as he approached them, as though they were trying to prevent him from going into those rooms. At the end of the hallway was a staircase, and he tripped as he ran down it, which sent him tumbling down to land in a heap at the bottom. He curled up on his side and hid his face in his arms as the tears flowed freely. The voices, thankfully, had stopped for the moment.

**OOOOOO**

Edeline stared silently out of the window in her sitting room as he absently stirred her tea. Outside the mullioned window, the snow was melting, she could see new buds on the trees, and here and there bird song drifted through the air. She sighed; it was just like the day... the day that Mathias had been born.

She felt her husband's presence behind her just before his arms around around her. "What are you thinking, love?" he asked her, his voice soft.

"It's been 25 years." she whispered, and Wolfram's arms tightened for a moment before they let go.

"Yes," he said quietly. "It has." He moved to stand beside her, and she turned her head away from the window to look at him. His brown eyes, once the same color as chestnuts, had faded with time, and his hair, which had only been a few shades darker than his eyes, had gone completely gray. His face was lined with wrinkles, and though he was still very hale and hearty, he preferred sitting quietly by the fire to riding out with the hunting parties.

Edeline knew that the same could be said of her. Her blond hair had faded to nearly white, and her eyes were being obscured by a milky white cloud forming in their centers. She could still see well enough to get around without assistance, but reading and needlework were becoming impossible. She reached up with one wrinkled hand that was covered in spots and lines and gently cupped his cheek. They weren't young anymore, and their time on the mortal plane was quickly running out.

Wolfram smiled gently at her, and he reached up with own hand and lightly grasped hers for a moment. He then kissed the back of it and let it go. Edeline let her drop to her side as she turned back to look out the window. With no hint of who had taken him or why, and with no ransom demands they had long ago given up their son as dead, but that didn't stop her from thinking of him, especially on early spring days like the one he had been born on.

"If Mathias had lived..." she said and then hesitated for a moment. Wolfram had also turned to look out the window, but he looked back at her when she spoke. "If Mathias had lived," she continued "what do you think he would have looked like?" She liked to think she already knew, because she had often imagined him at various ages, and in her mind he looked very much like his father: tall, broad across the shoulders, with a strong angular jaw and intense, deep eyes. Those eyes though, would be green like hers, though perhaps he would have followed his father's lead and grown a full goatee.

Wolfram looked at her for a long moment, and then he turned to look out the window again. "I think..." he began in a soft voice. " I think that he would be as handsome as his mother is beautiful, with her green eyes that sparkled when he laughed and flashed when he was angry. I think he would be tanned from hours out in the sun with the hunting parties, and it would have bleached streaks of gold into his brown hair. I think he would be tall and strong and so very brave, able to handle whatever threat came his way, but still be willing to relax by the fire and recite the classics to his children." He turned his entire body to face her. "I think he would have been everything we could have dreamed."

Edeline looked up at her husband of 36 years and tried to smile, but her mouth trembled as a few tears spilled forth. Wolfram's arms came around her, and she leaned into the embrace and laid her head on his strong chest. She heard a few quiet sniffles from him and closed her eyes as they both remembered the child that they had lost.


	3. Family: 2

**A/N: **So there I was, rereading the prologue, when I noticed a hilarious autocorrect on Open Office's part. For some reason, it had changed "Cronqvists" to "Creationists". I suppose it fits considering the heavy religious tone of the Castlevania series, but it still made me crack up. I'm surprised no one caught it. At any rate it's been fixed, but it was good for a laugh. XD

**2. **

Gabriel did not know how much time passed before he raised his head again. His head throbbed from the crying, but it subsided and vanished as he slowly pushed himself to his feet. He looked around for a moment, but he did not recognize his location. He paused and then laughed at the absurdity of it; how could he expect to memorize the layout of a demonic castle? He ignored that his laughter had a slightly hysterical edge to it as he began to wander out of the area.

A nearby vase provided the blood needed to quiet his thirst, and he continued his wandering through the seemingly empty castle. He remembered the various creatures that were housed there while Carmilla was in charge, but he hadn't seen any sign of them in the days? weeks? months? since he had taken refuge there. Had they all fled? Had he managed to kill them all back then? Why did he even care in the first place? It wasn't as if he was planning to lord over them himself.

_We need you here..._

He shivered and pulled the ragged remains of his leather armor tighter around him. How long had it been since he had had a change of clothing? It had been just after.. just after...

"Marie's funeral." he whispered. He had watched her overnight as was custom after their friends and family had come through, and then they had buried her the next day. The morning after that, he'd been visited by the Brotherhood Elders and informed that the Lords of Shadow were the cause of the world's problems, including preventing Marie's soul from moving on. So he'd geared himself up, said goodbye to his friends and family...

He laughed bitterly. Family? He didn't have any! He'd been an unwanted bastard child, tossed down onto a doorstep like the trash.

_We will never leave you..._

The men that had raised him had been friends and comrades in arms, but it hadn't been until he'd married Marie that he'd had anything resembling a family. And now... she was gone.

She was gone.

Marie was gone...

Marie was _dead!_

_He_ had killed her!

He had _murdered_ his own wife!

"Gabriel the bastard!" He could hear the taunts as though his childhood tormentors were standing right behind him. "Nobody wants him! Everybody hates him. He should just go off and die!"

"Death would be preferable right now." he said to no one in particular. A second later he jerked his head to the side to escape the feeling of invisible fingers running through his hair. "Don't touch me!" he snarled.

_My lord..._

"Leave me the hell alone! I'm not your lord! Stop talking to me!"

_But we need you._

_We will take care of you._

_We will protect you from them._

"I don't want you to take care of me! I don't need your protection!"

An invisible hand caressed his cheek. _Do not fear us. We will never harm you._

He jerked his head away from the touch. "Leave me alone!"

There was a pause, and then... _As you wish, my lord. _The caressed stopped then, and the voices fell silent. Gabriel sighed, and the sound echoed off the stone walls and high stone ceiling as he began to walk again. Maybe now, he could get some peace.

He wandered aimlessly through the massive castle, with only the sounds of his booted feet against the stone floors for company. Sometimes when he took a step, he could feel the coldness of the floors on his feet; his boots were in a similar state as the rest of his clothing. He ignored it, unable to muster the energy to care.

The hours passed slowly passed by as he walked through the empty rooms and cavernous halls of the Bernhard Castle, and at some point, a tingling across his skin, akin to what one would feel whilst in the midst of a lightning storm, warmed him that the sun was on the rise. He needed to find a dark place to lie down in safety...

_We will keep you safe._

… but maybe he shouldn't.

Maybe he should just find a large window and throw himself down in front of it, end his miserable existence while he still had the nerve...

He raised his head and looked around, and as luck would have it, there were windows in the room ahead of him. All he had to do was walk through the open door ahead of him into the slowly strengthening sunlight that he could see shining through the dirty glass... it would be over quickly.

He felt a tug on his sleeve -

_We will not allow it._

- and the door slammed shut with a _bang!_ that echoed loudly through the deserted halls.

_You belong to us now._

He reached out for the door handle, but it would not turn, and the door would not budge. He pushed and pulled with all of his strength, but the door refused to move, as though something was holding it closed from the other side.

"I told you to leave me alone."

_You cannot harm yourself here._

"I don't want this! Open this door!"

_You are ours._

"No! You cannot keep me prisoner here! Open this door!"

He felt hands grab him by his ragged clothing, and they began to pull him away from the closed door. He gripped the handle with both hands, and for a moment, he was caught in a strange tug of war between the door and the invisible hands.

_Come with us, my lord. _

_You must be kept safe._

"Let go of me!"

The heavy oaken door began to creak, and then it began to groan as the hands tried to pull Gabriel away from it.

_We need you here._

"Release me!"

There was a loud _pop!_ and the wood around the door handle split, and then with a _crack!_ it gave way, which sent Gabriel tumbling down to the floor. The hands then began to tug him away from the damaged door and the bright sunlight he could see through the cracks left behind by the door handle.

_Come with us._

He managed to get his feet under him, but he could not reach the door, no matter how hard he struggled. He howled in frustration and rage as the hands dragged him away, away from the sweet release that was right there in front of him, and back into the shadows of the castle.

**OOOOOO**

It was rare that he wandered among the common folk like this, Wolfram thought as he and Edeline strolled arm and arm through the fair that had come to town, but it was nice to get out once in a while. If anything, it allowed them to see what was going on on their lands and hear if there were any problems that needed to be taken care of. It wouldn't do for the lord and lady to be out of touch with their people, after all. Of course it helped that fairs and festivals of all kinds were fountains of gossip, so it allowed him to easily keep one ear on the conversations going on around them, to see if there was anything worth paying attention to.

The favored topic seemed to be the mysterious warrior that had ended the plague of monsters and evil that had covered the last the previous summer and fall. No one, it seemed, had seen or heard from this warrior after his battles had been finished, and there were some that insisted he was dead, that he had died in battle against Satan, succumbing to his injuries moments after he had sent the fallen angel back to Hell. Of course, many scoffed at that. What mere mortal could defeat Satan?

God's Chosen One was the most common answer. A man chosen to be God's warrior on Earth could defeat Satan, because what chance would an angel have against someone carrying the power of God Himself?

Wolfram shook his head as he listened to the people talk. He remembered those terrifying weeks where it seemed as though God had abandoned them. He remembered the monsters that had roamed freely and how nothing he or his knights had done seemed to stop them. For every one they killed, another had taken its place, and it had seemed as if the attacks would never stop. He'd been unable to keep track of the homes damaged, crops destroyed, livestock slaughtered, and families murdered in their beds. He counted it as a miracle that they had made it through the winter.

He remembered the day that the attacks began to taper off, and how they slowly decreased in frequency until they stopped altogether. He, like everyone else, had breathed a sigh of relief that the trouble seemed to be finally over, even as he wondered what had stopped it. It was only days later that the stories began to circulate, stories of a mysterious warrior from the Brotherhood of Light that had fought the Lords of Shadow and then Satan himself.

Wolfram knew about the Brotherhood of course. It was impossible not to, as they could be seen everywhere, going about their business. Their compound was on a neighboring lord's land, several days away. He didn't mind their presence; they were great help in times of need, such as the events of the previous year, and they could be found out and about just like anyone else during the nicer weather. As a matter of fact, they had approached him for permission to build a second compound on his lands, and he had promised to think about it. He wasn't opposed to them building there, but he needed to find a suitable spot first. They were entirely self sufficient, with their own fields and livestock, and they only bartered with the townsfolk on rare occasions, so he needed to make sure it was a place that had plenty of room for them to sprawl out as needed.

And speaking of the Brotherhood, Wolfram thought as he saw one of their elders approaching him through the crowd. It was the same one that had inquired about being a compound on his lands actually.

"Cardinal Volpe," he said cordially as the elderly man, sporting a long, white, pointed beard and carrying a strange hybrid of a staff and spear, stepped up to him.

"Greetings, Lord Cronqvist." Cardinal Volpe said with a nod of his head, which allowed Wolfram to get a good look at the top of his bald head. Strangely enough the back of his head sported hair that fell past his shoulders. "I was hoping to hear that you have good news for us?"

"Indeed I do. I only wish to make sure you have a suitable place with room for everything you need first."

"I understand, my lord. If it please you, I wish to have some of my own people scout the land, and if they find a place, they may bring it to your attention for your approval?"

"That will work well. Just as long as no building takes place before then."

"Agreed, my lord. I will get my men on it immediately."

"Very well then."

"By your leave, Lord Cronqvist." the Cardinal nodded nodded respectfully to him, as well as to Edeline, and then turned and walked away. Wolfram watched him go, and he noticed how, from behind, the man's uniform resembled a red.. hooded... cloak...

He frowned in sudden thought, and stared after Cardinal Volpe long after the man had vanished into the crowd.

"Wolfram?" came Edeline's quiet voice from his left. "Wolfram, what is it?"

He didn't answer her for a few minutes; his mind was awhirl with thoughts as pieces began to fall into place.

"Wolfram?"

He shook his head as the sounds of the fair seemed to rush back into his ears. He smiled down at his wife, who was looking up at him in concern, but then he looked back up at where he had last seen the Brotherhood elder.

"What is wrong, Wolfram?"

"Nothing, my dear." he said in a voice that sounded fake to his own ears. "Nothing at all. Come, let us see the rest of the fair." He looked down at her and tried to put on a smile, but it came out looking more like a grimace. She gave him a disbelieving look, and he knew that she would demand answers once they were in the privacy of their own home, but for the moment she only nodded and let him lead her away.

Despite the thoughts swirling around in his mind, Wolfram still kept one ear on the conversations around them, and when Edeline stopped to look over bolts of silk that had come by way of the Silk Road. He simply stood to the side and watched the crowd going by as she haggled with the merchant. It helped that standing still allowed him to hear more than simply walking around would, and as usual, people were talking about that warrior again.

"Any idea where he went?"

"I heard he died after the battle with Satan."

"You didn't expect for anyone to fight Lucifer himself and _live_ right?"

Laughter sounded from the crowd and then: "Any idea where he was from?"

"I heard he was from the Brotherhood."

"Everyone knows that one! I wanna know what his name was, and if he had pretty wife."

"So you can 'console' her?"

"I'm not going to deny that."

More laughter, and then a new voice joined the conversation. "His name was Gabriel Belmont." Wolfram looked towards the voices to see who had spoken, but it seemed to be just a group of merchants. Nothing out of the ordinary, but he still took note of the younger man, with the wavy brown hair, that had spoken before he turned back to his wife. If people noticed he was eavesdropping, they would go silent, like they feared offending him somehow.

"How do you know that?" one, the one that wanted to 'console' the warrior's wife, asked.

"I'm from that area, and I met him a time or two."

"Belmont? That's not any noble name that I know of."

"That's because he's not a noble, or at least, not an acknowledged one."

"What's that mean?"

"He was left on the Brotherhood's doorstep as an infant. Some say he was a bastard child from one of the noble families."

"Well, if he is, I bet they're regretting dumping him now! Imagine how much bragging they could do over one of their own defeating Satan!"

The group laughed again, and Wolfram heard someone bang a metal tankard on a tabletop. "So which family left him? Anyone know?"

"No one knows for sure, but the most popular rumor is that the Cronqvists -" Wolfram felt his heart stop for a moment. "- dumped him."

The group jeered the speaker, and someone else began to speak, but Wolfram was no longer listening. He stepped up to Edeline, who was still haggling over prices with the merchant. "We have to go now." he said in her ear, and he didn't give her a chance to answer before he began to pull away towards where their carriage was waiting to take them home. He almost imagined that he could hear the pieces in his mind clicking together to form a horrible conclusion that was unthinkable, but it made so much sense. He needed answers, and he knew where he needed to go to get them.

**OOOOOO**

**A/N 2: **Gabriel's parts are so hard to write, since they're just him slowly losing his mind, but the parts with Edeline and Wolfram move much quicker, since they're the ones actually driving the plot at this point. I spent weeks trying to write Gabriel's section in this chapter, and then churned out Wolfram's part in less than a day. Go figure.


	4. Family: 3

**3.**

Gabriel stared silently up at the vaulted ceiling above him, as he lay sprawled out on the floor where he had been left. He'd exhausted himself trying to get away from the... whatever that had been, and he'd collapsed not longer after they'd dragged him into a small dark room and let go of him. He hadn't moved since then. What was the purpose?

_You must drink, my lord. _

He ignored the voice as well as the thirst that tickled the back of his throat. If they wouldn't let him die in the sun, then he would end it by starving himself. They couldn't force him to drink, could they?

_We need you strong._

"Go away," he whispered tiredly as he wiped at his eyes. It was pure habit; sand did not accumulate in his eyes anymore. There were so many things that were different about him now. He knew he could run faster than any human could, and he knew that his senses had sharpened considerably. He could see the individual dust motes wedged in the cracks of the stone walls, and he could hear the faint voices from the village below, despite the multitude of thick stone walls that surrounded him.

Even in the windowless, lightless room, Gabriel could easily see the door, and he dragged himself to his feet and walked towards it, half expecting it to disappear. It opened easily however, but once again, he found himself in an area that he did not recognize. He needed a map...

_You belong here with us._

Blood burbled up in front of him through a crack in the stone floor, but he ignored it and walked past, despite the burning in his veins from the tantalizing scent.

_Please drink, my lord._

He said nothing as he walked down the corridor. He wouldn't give the voices the satisfaction of getting a response out of him. He was going to end it, one way or another.

_You know what happens to suicides, my lord._

He wouldn't be welcome in Heaven anyway.

The hours ticked by as he wandered through the crumbling halls, stairs, and rooms of Bernhard Castle, though, after some time had passed, he noticed that he was going in circles. No matter which direction he went or which corridors he took, he always ended up in the same places every time. Didn't this place have an exit? He knew the castle to be massive from his previous visits, so why couldn't he find the rest of it?

And why did he care to begin with?

As he wandered through the area (How many loops had he made? Two? Three? A hundred?) blood burbled up through cracks in the floor and in vases and basins as he passed, and the whispers entreated him to drink, to not weaken himself by starving, but he ignored them. Tired from walking, he sat down on the floor in a large circular room, with a statue of three girls in the center, and drew his knees up to his chest and laid his head down on them. The candles in the room (Who had lit them anyway, he wondered.) dimmed when he sighed, and the sound echoed off the patterned floor and crumbling walls.

A cold hand brushed his cheek. _My lord..._

He jerked his head to the side. "Do not touch me!" he snarled.

Blood bubbled up through the floor by his right hand. _We don't want you to go without, my lord._

"I will do as I wish. And I am not your lord!" He snatched his hand away and tried to ignore the aching of his fangs.

_We need you strong. _

_We need you to help us._

He felt another brush against his cheek, which prompted him to leap to his feet. "I am through helping others!" he howled at the ceiling, which caused dust to sift down from it. "Look at what it has gotten me! I've lost everything! I have nothing..." He dropped back to the floor as his throat closed up. "Nothing left..." he whispered, and even this softer sound echoed down the halls and rooms like it had been shouted.

_You have us now._

"I don't want you. I don't need you."

_But you do. We will take the place of what was lost. We will ease the ache in your soul. _

He squeezed his eyes shut as his heart constricted in pain. "You cannot replace Marie!"

_She is gone._

_She left you._

_You no longer need her._

He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling as drops of blood began to drip down onto his face. His body burned with thirst, but he didn't attempt to drink them. "Marie..." The name came out as a pained gasp. The smell of blood grew stronger, and he looked around to see blood bubbling up from every crack and crevice in the walls and floor, as well from the eyes of the statue he was leaning against. It oozed towards him, and it made him think of a snake preparing to snare its prey.

_Drink._

"No."

The blood crept ever closer. _Drink, my lord. _

A hand cupped his face, like a lover preparing to bestow a kiss, and he surged to his feet. "No!" and ran from the room.

_You cannot run away._

_We will find you._

His bootfalls echoed against the dilapidated walls as he fled down the corridors, paying no mind as to where he was going. He had to get away from... He would not drink what they offered him. He would die first! He leapt down a flight of stairs, and he didn't break stride as he ran on, until he came to a dead end, with a crumbling wall, and a broken metal gate higher up. He didn't hesitate or even thing about what he was doing, he simply scrambled up the wall and through the broken gate and found himself himself in a small alcove, formed by a collapsed ceiling. Wherever the alcove had once led to was no longer accessible by the cave in, but he did not care. He scrabbled as far away from the opening as he could and huddled in a shivering ball against the rubble. He cared little for the damage the sharp stones were doing to his already shredded clothing as he buried his face in his arms and began to cry.

"Marie..."

**OOOOOO**

Wolfram leaned against the desk in his study and eyed the group that was lined up across from him. There were sixteen of them, servants and guardsmen that had been in the house the night Mathias had been stolen from his cradle and had survived the attack. He swept his gaze across them, wondering if their answers to the questions he was about to ask would confirm his suspicion, a suspicion that was rapidly growing into a certainty the longer he thought about it. He didn't want it to be true; his mind shied away from the mere idea, but he couldn't deny the direction his thoughts were leading him.

Edeline was seated nearby, also looking at the group in front of them. He hadn't told her his suspicion, but by the look in her eyes and the worry on her face, he could tell that things were beginning to fall into place for her as well. That was more proof for him that he was correct.

And it was terrifying.

The question was why? Why would the Brotherhood do such a thing? What drove them to break into his house, attack his servants, kill his guardsmen, and kidnap his infant son? Did they need Mathias for something? Surely they weren't short on warriors as their ranks were full of second sons, orphans, homeless, and those cast away by the rest of society. As long as one was willing to do the work and follow the training, the Brotherhood accepted all, so why?

Pushing those thoughts to the side for the moment, Wolfram turned his attention to those standing in front of him.

"All of you, no matter your profession or place in the household, have one thing in common." he began, and they looked between themselves and then at him in confusion. "You were all here the night my son was stolen from his cradle, and all of you managed to survive that night with your lives. Now I need each and every one of you to do something for me, something very important, but first, I need your solemn vow that you will keep this between those of us in this room for now."

"My lord," spoke up one of the maids, "we're all concerned. You seem very worried about something, and we'll do what we can to help. What is wrong?"

There were nods and murmurs of agreement from the others, and for a moment Wolfram felt a warm glow at the loyalty of his staff, but he still needed to be careful. He needed to make sure that nothing got out until he was sure of his suspicions and could act on them.

"Swear to me first." he said firmly. "Swear to me that you will keep this discussion to yourself. Swear to me that you will not discuss it anywhere but in this room with each other and myself. I do not want to hear a breath of his anywhere else; am I clear?" He looked at each on in turn and met their eyes, and they all nodded in understanding.

"I swear, my lord." the maid said firmly, and the others quickly echoed her sentiment.

Wolfram nodded with satisfaction. "I need all of you to think of the night that Mathias was stolen, and I need you to try and recall every little detail of the attack that you can. And I mean everything; how many attackers there were, who they seemed to be taking orders from, how they moved, what weapons and skills they used, how they were dressed, what features of their faces and bodies that you noticed. _Everything._ This is very important."

There was a gasp, from his librarian, an ancient fellow with long, thin fingers, long white hair, and a beard to match that had been getting on in years when Wolfram himself had been a boy. "You know who took the little master, don't you?"

Wolfram held up his hands. "All I have is a suspicion for right now. I cannot act on it until I have more proof. Anything you tell me could help confirm or deny."

There was silence for a long moment as the group thought back to that day 25 years ago, and Wolfram remembered the terror of coming home to find that his house had been attacked, the horror of those killed, and the sicking realization that his son was gone. It had been a horrible day for everyone, but maybe, just maybe, they would finally be able to set things right.

"They all wore hooded cloaks." one of the guardsmen said slowly after a few minutes. "I remember that clearly, and their hoods were very large, and made it difficult to see their faces."

"Yes, I remember that too." added the housekeeper. Years ago, she had been a chamber maid, but she had risen to her current position after years of hard work. "Their cloaks were red, bright red, like... like blood, but their hoods were black."

"I got a good look at one as they went past me." said Wolfram's valet, who had been a hall boy that day "I was hidden in an alcove so they didn't see me, but I remember that he wasn't actually wearing a cloak. He was simply wearing leather armor that looked like one from behind. It was trimmed in gold, and had a strange skull figure on the front. It didn't have a lower jaw, and the teeth of the upper jaw were very long and pointed."

"Most of them used swords," said one of the cooks, who had been a scullery maid on that long ago day. "But some of them used spears and staffs, and there was one who used... I'm not sure if it was a shepherd's crook with a blade added on or a spear shaped like a shepherd's crook."

An apt description of Cardinal Volpe's preferred weapon, Wolfram thought.

"Some of them also used magic of some kind," added the librarian. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Yes, I saw that too," said another guardsman. "Some of them glowed blue, and when they did, any injuries that they had sustained seemed to heal themselves. When they glowed reddish orange, they seemed to hit harder and do more damage with their own attacks."

"They moved with military precision, and once they had gotten what they had come for," said a third guardsman, "they just seemed to vanish and disappeared into the shadows outside like they had never been there. They took their dead and injured with them, and if it hadn't been for the dead and damage to us that they left behind, one couldn't tell that they had been there at all."

There were nods of agreement from the others, but the discussion was interrupted by a knock at the study door. One of the younger servants then opened in a crack and stuck her head in. "My apologies for interrupting my lord," she said meekly, "but there are two from the Brotherhood of Light here to see you."

"Give us another moment and then send them up." Wolfram instructed. The girl nodded and left, pulling the door closed behind her, and Wolfram turned to face the group in front of them. He could see sudden comprehension dawning in many of their eyes. "Not a word of this," he warned quietly. "I do not want to hear one breath of this outside of this room. Am I understood?" There were nods all around. "Keep your silence on this matter and let me deal with it. You are dismissed; return to your duties."

The group filed out, and once they were gone, and the study door was closed behind them, Edeline finally spoke.

"You believe the Brotherhood took our son." she said quietly as she kept her eyes fixed on the door that their servants had just departed through.

Wolfram nodded while also looking at the door. "I do." he whispered. "I can't believe I never though of it before, but..." He shrugged helplessly.

"It is hard to think of. Who wants to think that those sworn to protect would kidnap a baby and kill those trying to protect him?"

"My thoughts exactly."

There was another knock on the study door, and it opened at Wolfram's call. The butler stepped in and sketched a short bow at the waist out of proper respect for the lord and lady. "Sirs Eric and Daniel from the Brotherhood of Light, my lord, my lady." He then stepped to the side and allowed two men to walk in. They two bowed at the waist, and Wolfram waved for them to stand in front of him. As they approached the desk, he couldn't help but notice that their red leather armor was trimmed in gold colored edging, and that both of them wore a strange looking skull insignia on their front... with no lower jaw, and long pointed teeth...

"You are the ones that Cardinal Volpe sent to survey?" he asked them, and they nodded.

"Yes, Lord Cronqvist."

"You may start immediately. My only requirements at this point is that you keep away from homes, villages, and farmland if possible, and that you come to me if you find something suitable."

"We understand, my lord."

Wolfram had an idea. "Would it be possible for my wife and myself to visit your compound?"

The two men started, and Wolfram detected a slight widening of their eyes and clenching of their jaws. "I'm sure that something could be arranged, but may we ask why?"

"I would like to see your compound and see just how large it is and how much you will sprawl out in the future."

The pair gave each other a quick glance, and was that a hint of worry in their eyes?

_Something you don't want me to see? _Wolfram thought, _Is there something there that you're hiding from me? _

"We will speak to Cardinal Volpe, my lord, and see what he says, but I don't think there will be any difficulty in arranging a visit."

Wolfram nodded. "Thank you. Now I'm sure that you would like to get started, so off you go. Get back to me when you've found something suitable."

"Yes, my lord. By your leave?"

Wolfram nodded, and the two left the study, moving a little faster than strictly necessary, he thought.

Once they were gone, and the door was once again closed, Edeline spoke up again.

"Why do you want to visit their compound?"

"Because if Mathias was there, there has to be some sign of him remaining, and I intend to find it."

Edeline nodded in understanding, and the pair remained where they were, sitting in thoughtful silence until they were called for dinner.


	5. Family: 4

**A/N: Aaaaaand Chapter 2 edited! I can't believe that I completely forgot to put that little detail in...**

**4.**

There was a hand stroking his hair.

Gabriel stirred slightly from his exhausted sleep, but he did not brush the touch away. Why waste the energy?

_Rest, Gabriel._ came a voice that sounded completely different from the voices he'd heard previously. _Be strong and have faith that things will get better soon. _

"I just want this to end." he whispered without opening his eyes.

_I understand, and the Lord does as well. Have patience, Gabriel; you still have a purpose._

"I'm so tired. I don't want to fight anymore."

_Rest, regain your strength. Resist the evil of this place for as long as you can. Help will be arriving soon_

"Who would want to help me? After everything..."

The hand gently threaded through his hair, and the touch felt soothing and comforting, opposite of what the others felt like. _More than you know, Gabriel. Now rest; you don't have much longer to wait._

With a soft sigh, Gabriel curled up on his side, and just for a moment, he felt safe and protected, as though he was at home with Marie instead of trapped inside a crumbling castle.

_Go to sleep, Gabriel. I am with you._

"Always?"

For a brief second, he had the impression that the voice smiled at him. _Always. _

With a soft sigh, Gabriel drifted off into a peaceful sleep, soothed by the hand that was still running through his hair.

**OOOOOO**

_My lord?_

_Gabriel?_

_My lord, you must wake._

Gabriel stirred at the hated sound, and his heart ached as the wonderful dream he'd been having vanished as he woke up.

_We need you, Gabriel._

"Why won't you leave me alone?" he groaned as he sat up. He rubbed at his eyes and saw that he was still in the alcove that he had fallen asleep in. Faint moonlight was streaming in through small cracks in the vaulted ceiling. How long had he slept? He hadn't slept like that since...

"_Come to bed, Gabriel." Marie beckoned from their bed. "It's late."_

He remembered that well. The next morning they had gone for a walk together and he had met a member of the Brotherhood that he did not know; an older man with even older armor...

No! he though as he shook his head violently. He wasn't going to think of that again!

The room around him titled slightly as the head shaking made him dizzy, and his thirst flared to life, stronger than before. How long could he go without drinking blood? A week? Two weeks? Months? He wished Laura had thought to explain things to him before she died. Was that normal, for a young vampire like him to be on their own with no one to guide or look after him?

_We will guide you._

_We will look after you._

Blood seeped down the crumbled wall on his right, which caused him to scoot away from it, but it simply dribbled down the floor and oozed after him. He scooted away again, until he was huddled by the left wall, and he tried not to think of how he was essentially cowering away from it. He drew his knees up and tucked his arms against his chest.

_You thirst, my lord._

_You must drink. _

"No, I will not."

_You mustn't weaken yourself._

"Go away."

_We need you._

"But I don't need you!" he howled in sudden anger. "So leave me alone!"

_No, we will not allow this._

_You cannot leave us. _

"I will!"

_No..._

Gabriel jerked his head away from an invisible hand that sought to grab him by the chin, for reasons he was sure that he could guess. "I will not drink!" He turned his head away from the bloodied wall and hid his face in the rough surface of the other wall next to him. "I won't..."

**OOOOOO**

Edeline looked silently at her husband as the carriage bounced down the rutted muddy road. He looked back at her, also without saying a word. Nothing needed to be said; they each knew well what was at stake.

To their surprise, the Brotherhood of Light had readily agreed to allow Wolfram to visit their compound, and Edeline had wondered if there was a reason for their haste. Hoping to get it done and over with, perhaps? Aware that maybe delaying the visit would seem suspicious? Hopefully, the Brotherhood hadn't had enough time to remove any traces of Mathias from the compound, but she was sure that they were already hard at work at that.

She agreed wholeheartedly with Wolfram that it had been the Brotherhood that had taken their son all those years ago, just as she also shared his belief that this Gabriel Belmont that they had been hearing about could be him. Other than the rumor that he was a unwanted bastard child of the Cronqvist family, there was no evidence or proof that he was their son, but...

Somehow she knew. She knew with all of her heart and soul that Gabriel and Mathias were one and the same. Now they just had to find him and bring him home.

"Do you think he survived?" she asked quietly as she stared out the small carriage window. If the rumors about Gabriel battling Satan himself were true, then there was little hope that he had lived after it was done. Surely such a battle would have left him seriously hurt, at the very least?

"I do not know." Wolfram replied. "I don't know what to believe at the moment. Part of me believes that this is just a wild goose chase; that Gabriel is not our son despite the rumors about him. I do not want to get my hopes up. Finding our son after all these years only to lose him again?"

Edeline shivered. She didn't want to think of that. "I hope we find him. I hope he's alive. I hope we can bring him home."

"As do I. You realize though, that if Gabriel is indeed our son, then he may not want to come with us."

"I know." Edeline whispered. "If he grew up believing that he wasn't wanted, then he may refuse to have anything to do with us."

"He was raised by the Brotherhood, and they are the only family he knows. He may simply not want to leave them behind."

"I can only hope that he will at least give us a chance to explain."

Wolfram nodded in understanding, and then he moved from the opposite bench and settled down next to her. His arm came around her shoulders and she leaned into his embrace, and the rest of the ride passed in silence.

**OOOOOO**

"Welcome Lord Cronqvist, Lady Cronqvist." said the young squire as Edeline and Wolfram alighted from their carriage in front of the Brotherhood's compound. Edeline looked up as she stepped down to the packed dirt drive, and she was surprised at what she saw.

The compound was smaller than what she had envisioned. It appeared to be four long buildings joined together to form a square, and though she couldn't see it, she was certain there was a central courtyard. Off to the left was a sizable barn and stables, and fields with neat rows of wheat sprawled out behind the complex.

She took Wolfram's arm as they were led into the building, and they stepped into a warmly lit entrance hall. Other than banners hanging from the walls and the high vaulted ceiling, there wasn't anything in the way of decoration. Torches dotted the stone walls, and a large brick fireplace, tall enough for her to stand upright in, was the centerpiece of the wall opposite the front door. Right now a fire was burning merrily away, and it was enough to keep the large, high ceilinged room pleasantly warm.

The heavy oak doors shut behind them, and she shivered slightly. Though the room was bright and cheery, something felt... off to her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was wrong, a tenseness to the atmosphere that she couldn't explain. She felt Wolfram stiffen slightly beside her; he felt it too.

"Greetings, my lord, my lady." came a familiar voice, and Edeline looked away from the fireplace to see Cardinal Volpe come through an open door from section of the building that formed the right side of the square.

"Greetings, Cardinal." Wolfram said formally, and Edeline echoed the greeting, grateful that she wouldn't be expected to speak much during the visit. She was already having a difficult time keeping her thoughts and questions to herself. Being asked to speak would make the task that much harder.

"I understand you're here to see our lands and buildings? To see how much space a new compound will take up on your lands?"

"Indeed. If you will follow me?"

"Lead the way."

For the next hour, Edeline and Wolfram followed the Cardinal all over the compound. The place bustled with activity, with men and boys of all ages cooking, cleaning, studying, training, farming, and tending to livestock. There were no servants, it was explained, everyone had chores to do, and those chores rotated on a schedule. The only one that was not part of the rotation was the nursemaid that cared for the smallest children, and that was because she had her hands full as it was. She was also the only woman in residence. Abandoned girls that were left with them were fostered out to area families. Only boys were kept.

Edeline smiled at the thought of children. "May we see the nursery?" she asked eagerly.

Cardinal Volpe stiffened slightly, and he gave them an apologetic smile that trembled a tiny bit. "I'm afraid not, my lady. Right now the children would be having their midday meal followed by their afternoon nap. We wouldn't want to disturb them."

"Of course, I understand."

"Shall we continue the tour?"

"Lead on, sir." Wolfram said with a nod, but as soon as the man's back was turned, his gaze flicked to meet hers, and a look of understanding passed between them.

The rest of the tour passed without incident, and Edeline tried not to let her disappointment show. She had looked everywhere, but there had been no sign that their son had ever lived there. To further her disappointment, no one had mentioned Gabriel Belmont at any time during the tour either. Since he was rumored to have defeated Satan, she would have expected them to boast about him at every chance, yet they had kept silent about him.

The returned to the entrance hall and prepared to leave.

"I hope you'll have good news for us soon, Lord Cronqvist." the Cardinal said easily.

"I hope the same. We will see when you're surveyors report back to me." Wolfram replied.

"Yes, they have written to report that they..." Edeline tuned out the Cardinal's voice – for some reason hearing the man speak irked her.

She looked away from him, and a soft giggle fell on her ears. She blinked and looked towards the doorway that led into the left side of the compound, the side that housed the nursery. Just inside the doorway, barely visible in the low light, was a small child perhaps about two or so. He was dressed in a sleeping gown and a tiny pair of socks, and his sleep tousled hair was a dark blond that was on the cusp of turning brown. She couldn't make out his eye color with her failing sight, but they didn't appear to be dark.

"Trevor Belmont!" came a woman's voice, low and annoyed, from down the corridor, and the little boy darted into the entrance hall. He toddled over to Edeline and hid behind her skirt as Wolfram and the Cardinal stopped their conversation and watched. She smiled down at him, and he looked up at her with a smile of his own that melted her heart and reached his tiny arms up to her.

"Up!" he commanded.

She didn't hesitate; she reached down and picked him up, and had him settled on her hip just as a woman, the nurse obviously, came into the room.

"Trevor Belmont!" she scolded as she walked towards Edeline and the boy. "You're supposed to be asleep, young man."

The little boy, Trevor, giggled, and his eyes sparked with mischief, and Edeline sucked in a breath.

His eyes were green, a soft pastel green.

The same shade of green as Mathias' eyes.

The same shade of green as her own.

"I apologize, my lady." came the nurse's voice, and Trevor was snatched from her arms. She then began to walk away, back towards the nursery presumably, as Edeline reached out without thinking about it. Wolfram gently pushed her arms down as Trevor was carried away, being scolded the entire time.

"Gabriel Belmont's son?" he asked the Cardinal with one eyebrow raised.

"Yes," the Cardinal admitted with a slow nod. "His mother died when he was an infant, so his father entrusted him to our care before he left on his quest."

"Did he not return for his son?"

"Sadly, Gabriel Belmont did not survive his wounds once his battles were complete."

"Such a shame then."

"Indeed, and now I must offer you my apologies, but the hour grows late, and there are tasks I must attend to. I wish you and your wife a safe journey home and hope to hear from you soon."

"Thank you Cardinal, for your kind words as well as the opportunity to see what you have built here. I'm sure I will be in touch shortly."

Before Edeline could say anything, Wolfram took her by the arm and led her out of the building and towards their carriage.

"Wolfram!" she hissed in outrage.

"Not now." he said in a harsh whisper. "Wait until we're away from here."

"But Wolfram, that boy!"

"I know, Edeline! But now is not the time or the place!"

"Lord Cronqvist?"

Wolfram and Edeline stopped abruptly at the hushed call, and they spotted what appeared to be a young stable hand, if the smell of horse manure that clung to him was any indication, with wavy brown hair and blue eyes. He was crouched down behind a bush, and he took a quick glance about before he stood up and approached them. Edeline took an involuntary step back as he moved closer.

"I heard you asking about Gabriel Belmont." he said quietly once he was close to them.

"Yes," Wolfram said quietly, "What can you tell us?"

"The Cardinal was lying to you." The young man frowned in disapproval. "Gabriel Belmont is alive, in a way."

"Where is he then? Where can we find him?" Edeline asked quickly as her heart soared with sudden hope. He was alive!

The stable hand took a furtive glance around. "He's in Bernhard Castle." he said. "If you hope to find him, then you must hurry. Leave immediately. You don't have much time."

"What do you mean by that?" Wolfram demanded.

"You have to hurry!" the stable hand insisted. "His strength is failing even as we speak. You're his only hope. Now go!"

Wolfram nodded, and without a word, he opened the carriage door and helped Edeline climb in.

"May my Lord go with you." the stable hand said quietly, and as Wolfram walked forward to speak to the driver, she looked out the window to thank him, but he was nowhere in sight. She heard Wolfram give instructions to the driver, and then he climbed in and shut the door. With a jolt, the carriage started to roll away from the Brotherhood's compound, and once they were off of the drive and onto the main road, she leaned back against the seat and leveled a steely look at her husband.

He held up his hand. "I know, Edeline." he looked out the window at the rolling countryside. "I am fully aware that Trevor Belmont is likely our grandson." He sighed heavily, looking every one of his 58 years. "I wanted to take him as much as you did."

"Then why? He's _ours_, Wolfram!"

"Because we can't prove it. Right now, the Cardinal is hopefully completely ignorant of our suspicions, and I want to keep it that way until we've found Gabriel and brought him safely home. Once we can prove that Gabriel is our son, then we will return for Trevor."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "He couldn't have stopped us."

"Yes, he could have, Edeline, and you know it! Right now, thanks to Gabriel's heroics, the Brotherhood can do no wrong in the people's eyes. How will people react if word got around that we were trying to steal the man's only child? One he entrusted to the Brotherhood's care?"

Edeline bowed her heard and closed her eyes, conceding the point, but it was so difficult. She could still feel the boy's warm weight in her arms and see that angelic face smiling at her. "I know, Wolfram, and my mind understands what you're saying, but my heart..." She let out a trembling sigh.

She heard him get up and then a second later, he settled down beside her, and she leaned against him as he put his arms around her. "I know." he said gently. "Trevor is fine where he is at for right now. They are obviously taking good care of him, so let's leave him for now, and focus on Gabriel."

She nodded, and then she sat up and looked at him with worry. "But Bernhard Castle? Why would Gabriel go to that God accursed place? What could he have been thinking?"

"I don't know." Wolfram whispered. "He had to have known about the reputation that the castle has, but I suppose we'll be able to ask him when we get there."

"How long?"

"It's an eight day journey from here, and no matter how much I wish we could move faster, it's just not possible."

She closed her eyes again and leaned back into his embrace. "I hope that he'll be happy to see us." she said softly.

"So do I."

They said nothing more as the carriage rolled down the dirt road, but the stable hand's words still echoed in her mind.

_You don't have much time._


	6. Family: 5

**5.**

Something was touching his face.

Something wet and sticky.

Gabriel jerked awake and pushed himself away from the wall that he had been leaning against. Blood was running down the crumbling stone, and he could feel it already beginning to dry on his face and hair.

_Drink, Gabriel._

"No!" He turned his head to the right to see the wall on that side also covered in blood. The sharp, tangy scent filled his nose, and his veins burned with fire as his thirst screamed to be sated. Something dripped onto his hair, and he looked up as rivulets of blood began to run down from the ceiling and the collapsed wall behind him. Within seconds, the walls were hidden behind a curtain of blood that ran to the floor and oozed towards him.

_You will not leave us._

Gabriel scrambled to his feet as the red tide covered the floor and slopped over the tops of his boots. It ran down in a small stream to the floor below and began to inch its way up his legs, like some kind of climbing vine.

He kicked out, splattering it against the walls, but as soon as he put his foot down, it began to climb up his leg again. He spun around towards his only exit, and he stumbled as he moved towards it. The floor was several feet below him, far enough that he would have injured his legs or feet if he had made the jump while human. A sizable puddle was forming on it as the blood streamed from the alcove, and Gabriel looked behind him to see his hiding space being consumed.

He jumped, and he tumbled down onto his hands and knees when he landed. Blood splashed onto his face, and he found himself licking it off before he could think. He shook his head and wiped it away before he could drink anymore of it and pushed himself to his feet. His legs shook under his weight, and his body felt almost too heavy to move as he staggered away from the area.

_No, my lord!_

"I will not..." he mumbled. "I won't drink. I won't."

_We will find you._

_There is no place here that you can hide from us._

"Leave me alone!"

_You are weak._

_You need us._

_We will take care of you._

"I don't want you!"

A hand touched his shoulder, and he yanked himself away from it, but the sudden movement sent the room spinning, and he stumbled and fell. Blood drops from his hair and ragged clothing were sent scattering across the floor as he collapsed onto his side.

He stared at the patterned floor as he laid there. It seemed too much to get up again. Was this what starving to death felt like?

Blood burbled up through a tiny crack in the floor by his face, like a miniature red fountain and began to trickle towards him.

_You mustn't die._

Gabriel heaved a sigh and pushed himself upright with shaking arms.

"I don't want any." he said quietly. "Please leave me in peace."

_You are too young to be going without._

"I don't care." he said as he pushed himself to his feet. "Leave me be." He shuffled away from the spot, and he thought he could hear the blood oozing after him, but he did not turn back to look.

_You will drink whether you want it or not!_

Blood dripped down onto his hair, and a quick look around the room saw it running down the walls and pouring from the ceiling. Like the alcove that he had just fled from, the room was soon covered with the sticky red liquid, and the air filled with its metallic scent. He froze in place for a moment -

I'm so thirsty.

I don't want to drink.

I feel so weak.

I want to die!

If I drink, I will stop hurting so much.

Then I will never be free of this existence!

- before he shook his head free of those thoughts and moved towards where he had seen the door. Even it was covered in a sheen of red, and he realized that he would have to walk through it to get out.

_Where do you think you're going?_

He should run, he thought, he should run as fast as he could away from here, but he was barely able to drag himself across the slippery floor. If he fell... He ducked his head and closed his eyes as he walked under the waterfall of blood and through the door -

_You belong to me._

- and he realized too late that there was no floor on the other side as he stepped through. His left foot only met open air, and his eyes flew open in time to see that the room he had walked into was filled by a virtual lake of blood. He had just enough time to cry out in horror before he fell face forward into it.

He sank like a stone as blood soaked into his hair and clothing, filled his boots, and began to drag him down. He thrashed weakly, desperate to surface as invisible fingers tried to pry his mouth open.

_Drink!_

He foot connected against something solid behind him, and he struggled around and reached out to touch it. His fingers scrabbled for purchase found a gap that he could grab onto and use to pull himself up. He gasped as his head broke the surface and blood ran off his hair and skin as he rested for a moment. He wiped at his eyes as best as he could and looked up to see that the door he had come through was blocked off by a bloody river that poured through it into the small lake he was in. He looked over his shoulder at the opposite end and saw a second river pouring out of the doorway on the other side. A quick look to the left showed him that the floor had collapsed, leaving little fragments of stone jutting from the walls. It would be slow, but he didn't want to risk swimming across. He wasn't even sure if he could.

He reached out with his left arm, and grabbed a hold of the ledge and used it to pull himself over. Even with the thick, viscous blood to buoy him, his arm still shook as he pulled himself across, and he was suddenly grateful for his claws as he used them to dig into the stone and hold on tighter. He paused for a second to take a little rest, and then, after making sure that his right hand had a good grip on the ledge, he reached out with his other hand for the next one.

_You will not leave! I will not allow it!_

He pulled himself over as blood drops began to patter down onto his hands, but he didn't look up. He already knew what the castle was doing. Instead he reached for the next ledge and pulled himself forward. He grabbed it with his left hand, but then his right one slipped, submerging him once more.

_I will have you!_

Gabriel dragged himself back up to the surface, pushed his blood soaked hair back from his face, wiped at his eyes, and grabbed the ledge with both hands. He then reached out for the next one. He was so thirsty...

No! Don't think about that! he told himself firmly. You have to get out of here!

As he reached for the next ledge, blood ran down the wall in front of him, and he realized that the level was rising. He quick look over his left shoulder showed him barely halfway around the room; he would not make it in time at his current speed. The blood was already to the bottom of the ledge that he was clinging to. He reached out for the next one, trying to move faster, as much as his failing strength would allow.

_No..._

He pulled himself across and reached for the next one, noting that the blood was now nearly halfway up. He didn't stop to worry, he simply reached over to his left, grabbed a hold of the remains of the floor and pulled himself over.

_No..._

The blood was nearly to the top; soon he would have to start swimming if he wanted to make it to the door. He dragged himself over to the next ledge. He was now just over halfway across.

_No!_

The blood reached the top and flowed over his hand holds, but he ignored that and reached for the next one. He had to reach the doorway. He dragged himself over to the next little piece of jutting stone, and then reached out for the next one.

But there was nothing there.

He stretched his arm out as far as he could and felt with grasping fingers for his means of escape, but all he felt was blood. He looked around for another way over, but there was nothing. He swallowed, took a deep breath, and then swam to where he hoped to find it, extending his right arm while keeping the claws of his right hand dug into the stone.

There!

His fingertips lightly brushed against jagged stone, and he realized what he would have to do to reach it. He pulled himself back to the right as the blood in the room continued to rise. He looked at where he believed the ledge to be, squeezed his eyes shut, and then used both arms to push himself away from his position with everything he could muster. He came partially out of the blood as he threw himself over, and he reached out with both hands as he splashed back down. He went under, and he clamped his mouth shut as he felt around in a frantic search for something to grab onto.

_You will never get away from me._

His claws raked across stone then, and he pushed himself towards it and grabbed on. His head broke the surface, and he paused only long enough to clear his eyes before he moved on. Now the blood was up to his neck, and he had to keep his arms extended to keep his head above it. He reached out for the next ledge and pulled himself over. He tilted his head back as the blood continued it's steady rise, and he risked taking a look to see how much further he had to go. He managed a crazed smile when he saw that he was almost there, and he reached for the next ledge as the blood lapped against the underside of his chin.

He reached for the next ledge, but the blood was too deep, and he could not reach it while keeping his head up. There was no other option; he clamped his mouth shut again and went under, allowing his body to float to lessen the strain on himself. He ignored the fingers and hands that tried to grab a hold of him and pulled himself forward, towards his only escape. He didn't know how deep the blood was, so he focused on finding the next ledge and getting closer to the door, grateful that he didn't need to surface for air. After a few minutes, he felt something tugging on him, but it wasn't trying to pull him down. Instead it was pulling him towards the direction of the door, and when he reached out and felt a current, he let go of the ledge and pushed himself towards it.

_No!_

Gabriel felt himself swept up in the current and sucked out the door. He surfaced as he was dragged out of the room and down a flight of steps. He slid down them and skittered across the slippery floor at the bottom for a good distance before he came to a stop. He staggered to his feet, slipping and sliding but managing to keep his balance, and began to move away from the blood floor. He quickly exited the room, but the smell of the blood did not leave him, and his thirst burned stronger than ever. Blood streamed from his clothes and hair, and the scent filled his nose, which made his fangs ache with need. He reached up and tried to wipe the blood off his hair, which sent droplets flying, but he was soaked in it. He wiped at his hair again, this time using both hands, but the hated scent did not fade any. He swiped his hands over his hair, faster, as he tried to get rid of it, but a new problem presented itself.

His clothing was also drenched in blood, and he ran his hands down it, but the red liquid had soaked into the material and couldn't be brushed away. It dripped to the floor and ran in thin rivulets down his arms and legs.

"No," he moaned as his body ached with a desperate need for blood. His fangs ached, and his body burned with fire, and he reached down to his leather armor and began to pull it off without thinking about it. He held it in his hand for a moment as his body locked up. He could see the individual drops as they ran down, and his body shook with thirst as he slowly raised it to his mouth...

"No!" he snarled as he threw it to the floor. "I will not drink!" He ripped off the tattered remains of his shirt and tossed it down to go with his armor. Next came his gloves, followed quickly by his boots, trousers, and underclothes, which left him naked and shaking in the middle of the floor. He looked down at his bloodied clothing for a moment as his eyes traced the outline of the blood stains, before he forced himself to walk away. He ripped down a tapestry as he walked towards the door and wrapped himself in it. It didn't do anything to lessen his shaking, but it helped with the ever present chill in the castle. He walked through the door and shut it behind him, and he breathed a sigh of relief when the smell of blood faded. He shuffled away then on legs that trembled under his weight and tried to ignore the voices as they followed him.

_I will find you, wherever you go._

**OOOOOO**

Four days, Wolfram thought. It had been four days.

Four days since they had visited the Brotherhood compound. Four days since they had seen the small child that was likely their grandson. Four days since they had learned that Gabriel Belmont lived still, despite the Cardinal's words to the contrary. Four days since they had set out to find him.

They were still four more days away from Bernhard Castle, he thought as he stared into the darkness of he and Edeline's room at the inn that they were staying at. Edeline was sleeping soundly in the bed, but he had found himself unable to sleep, so he had moved to the room's only chair to think.

More like brood, he admitted with a rueful smile. His thoughts had been chasing themselves in circles for hours while going absolutely nowhere.

Why had the Cardinal lied to them about Gabriel? Why had Gabriel gone to Bernhard Castle? Why had the stable hand stated that they didn't have much time left? Was the Cardinal worried about them finding out the truth? Did Gabriel feel the need to shelter in such a horrid place? Was he injured in some way? Was he ill?

So many questions, but no answers were in sight. He sighed as he leaned back to look up at the shadowed ceiling. There was something going on here, something more than the Brotherhood trying to hide their kidnapping of the heir to a noble family. What were they hiding?

He closed his eyes and laid out the facts as he knew them:

The Brotherhood had stolen Gabriel/Mathias from his cradle and had evidently raised him as one of their own. They apparently also told him that his family had not wanted him.

Something horrible had happened the previous fall. Wolfram had heard talk of the Lords of Shadow causing more trouble that usual, but he hadn't heard anything concrete about that yet.

Whatever it was, Gabriel had put a stop to it, battling Satan in the process.

At some point, Trevor Belmont had come into the custody of the Brotherhood, and knowing what he did, Wolfram doubted more and more each passing day that Gabriel had willingly left his son with them. Something about the entire thing seemed off to him.

For whatever reason, instead of returning to his home and his son, Gabriel had gone to Bernhard Castle. Why would he not want to return to the child his wife had bore him? Had the battles left him disabled, disfigured, or ill?

Then, the Cardinal flat out lied about his survival for some reason. Wolfram had no doubt that the stable hand had been speaking the truth. Something about him made him trust the young man's word. No, despite what the Cardinal said, Gabriel was alive and at Bernhard Castle, and he and Edeline were going to find him and bring him home. Then they would be able to prove that he was their son, and they would be able to get Trevor as well. It would all work out.

At least, he hoped it would.

He knew that, unless Gabriel strongly resembled either him or Edeline, there was no way to prove that he was their son. And even a resemblance might not be enough. It was said that everyone had their twin after all. Unless Gabriel claimed Trevor as his and sought custody, they would have a hard time getting the child away from the Brotherhood. They could always blackmail the Cardinal by stating that they wouldn't say anything about Mathias' kidnapping if they handed the boy over, but it was a risky gamble. All the Cardinal would have to do was announce that they were trying to take a hero's son, and it could easily blow up in their faces. After all there was no real proof that the Brotherhood had stolen their son to being with. Twenty-five year old eye witness accounts did not count as proof.

What if they did find Gabriel? What then? They hadn't seen their son since he was four days old, and there was no way to know what kind of man he had grown into and thus no way to predict how he would react to meeting them. After being told as a child that his parents had not wanted him and had left him on a doorstep, he might respond to them with anger. Wolfram certainly believed that he would react in such a way if he was in Gabriel's position. They would have to find a way to make him listen, to let them explain, but even then, he might not believe them.

And if only if he's fit to listen to them at all. Wolfram knew of the dark reputation that Bernhard Castle held, of the rumors that surrounded it. The Lord only knew what could have driven Gabriel to that place after his battles were done. He had heard that the Lord of Shadow that had once lived there was no more, destroyed by Gabriel himself, but even that couldn't have convinced Wolfram to go near that place on any other day.

People whispered of the castle being possessed by a demon, and how its layout constantly changed, which made mapping it impossible. They spoke of a mad doctor that tortured innocents in the name of medicine, and how a fearsome creature bearing the guise of a woman, came to the castle, killed everyone inside, and took it for her own. From then on, the area was shrouded in perpetual winter, and during the cold nights, winged vampires flew from the castle to drink the blood of any unfortunate enough to be caught outside after dark.

If the vampire that had lived in the castle was gone, then that was one less thing to worry about, but with the castle already having a terrible reputation long before she came, it still wasn't a place that Wolfram had ever intended to visit. But Gabriel was there, for whatever reason, and they had to find him. Was he in danger from the dark elements inside the castle? Had he fled there to die in peace, knowing that no sane person would disturb him there?

Was he being held prisoner?

Wolfram shivered; he didn't want to think of that possibility.

"Wolfram?" came Edeline's sleepy voice from the bed. "What is wrong?"

"Nothing dear," he said with a sigh that revealed his lie. "Go back to sleep."

"Not until you're over here with me."

Giving it up, he stood up from the chair and went back to the bed. He felt Edeline's arm snake around him as he slipped under the covers next to her.

"I'm trying not to," she murmured, "but it's hard not to worry about him, isn't it?"

Wolfram nodded. "I know. I can't stop thinking of that terrible place and all of the reasons he could be there. And that's only the first part of it. When we find him and convince him to come back with us, what then? We have no proof that he's our son and hence no proof that Trevor is our grandson."

"We'll figure that out when we come to it. As you said the other day, Trevor is safe and being taken care of, so let's worry about Gabriel for now. Believe me, I've been doing plenty of that over the past few days."

Despite what they had ahead of them, Wolfram couldn't help but laugh. "So have I, my dear."

Edeline yawned. "Goodnight, Wolfram."

"Goodnight, darling."

He felt Edeline relax behind him, and a few minutes later, her quiet breathing told him that she was asleep. He longed to join her, but his still whirling thoughts wouldn't allow it, so he laid awake the rest of the night, worrying about their son.


	7. Family: 6

**6.**

The cold water poured down through the hole in the roof and splashed onto the top of his head, and Gabriel shivered from the chill as he used it to rinse the dried blood out of hair. It also had the helpful side effect of waking him up. Since he had escaped the blood lake, he had wandered constantly through the area, never stopping, not even for a moment. No matter where he went, the castle's blood oozed after him, calling for him to drink.

How much longer could he go on? He hadn't had anything in several days, and he didn't dare lie down to sleep either, for he knew the castle would use that to seize hold of him. He shivered again, a violent shudder that wracked his entire body. He was so tired...

_You are dying, my lord._

Gabriel smiled faintly at that. He knew that. He could barely stand now, and walking was more of a slow shuffle while he fought to keep himself upright. His shivering was so violent that it had nearly made him fall on multiple occasions, and he seemed to be sleepwalking most of the time. His body cried out for blood, for rest, and he was denying it both. He was going to end it, one way or another.

_You can't leave me!_

The sound of oozing blood prompted him to move again, and now that the water running from his hair was clear, he carefully pushed himself to his feet, using the wall to pull himself up. He picked up the tapestry that he had ripped down from the wall and wrapped himself in it, and then he wobbled out of the room on legs that struggled to support him. How much longer could he go until they collapsed under him? Would he just lie wherever he had fallen until he died?

No, the castle wouldn't allow that. It would use his weakness to force him to do as it wanted. He would have to find a place for when that happened, someplace high where the blood would have a hard time reaching him. He stumbled and had to use the wall to catch himself. Of course he would have to find a way to reach a high place first, and he had no idea how he was going to do that when he could barely walk.

He would just have to keep going, he thought as he walked into another room, and like all the others, he paid no attention to the room's layout other than to make sure there was a solid floor under his feet. He dragged his aching body across the floor towards the door on the other side, and...

_I have had enough of your defiance._

He paused where he was, in the center of the room and looked around in confusion for a moment before the sound of burbling blood made him look down at his feet. His feet were surrounded by a rapidly expanding pool of blood, and before he could command his shaking legs to move, ropes, appearing as though they were formed from blood itself, erupted from the floor and looped themselves around his ankles.

"What?" He dropped the tapestry and threw his arms out for balance as the ropes pulled his legs apart. He wavered back and forth for a moment, and more ropes erupted from the floor, this time grabbing his wrists. They pulled him backwards, and he landed in the puddle with a loud splash as he clawed at them, trying to pry them off of him. More of them came, with one winding tightly around his waist, two more wrapping themselves around his thighs, one that grabbed his head, and finally two more that hooked onto his arms. They tightened and pulled him down against the floor as he tried to escape them, but they held him so tight that all he could do was squirm a little.

"Let me go!"

_You will drink._

"I don't want to drink! Let go!" He thrashed in the ropes' grip, and more of them appeared and wound around him, including one that tightened around his neck. Finally another one appeared in his sight, but it did not grab a hold of him. Instead it only hovered above his face, which allowed him to see that it wasn't a rope at all, but merely blood formed into a solid form while still somehow keeping a liquid state. He could see the ripples running through it, and drops dripped from the tip to land on his face.

Tears appeared in his eyes and ran down his face. "I don't want this! Please let me go!"

_You cannot leave here._

"No!" he wailed. "Stop! Don't do this!"

The blood rope over his face began to inch down towards him, and he clamped his mouth shut. He wasn't going to drink! In response, he felt the rope around his neck tightening, and his cries were strangled off as it began to choke him. He didn't need to breathe, so why...?

It tightened still further, and he felt muscles, sinew, and bones began to creak and pop under the pressure. He tried to throw himself to the side, but the other ropes only tightened their holds until he was held frozen to the floor, unable to move an inch. He strained his neck as he tried to move his head, but he had no room to move, and the rope around his neck continued to tighten. He set his jaw and whined in pain as more tears ran down his face.

Finally, his neck could take no more, and with a soft _crunch!_ his throat caved in. He opened his mouth to cry out and saw the rope above him diving towards him.

_I will have you._

Gabriel closed his eyes; he knew what was going to happen, just as he knew he wouldn't be able to avoid it.

He saw the bright flash of light through his eyelids, heard the voice screech in pain, and then he felt the ropes loosening.

"Run, Gabriel!"

He didn't move. What? What was happening? Where had he heard that voice before?

Another bright flash, another screech, and the ropes loosened even further.

"Get up, Gabriel! Run!"

This time, he understood the words, and he scrambled away from the ropes that had held him. He opened his eyes to see the blood retreating, but there was no sign of his rescuer. No matter, he stumbled away from the scene, not bothering to grab the tapestry to cover himself.

_Now look at what you've done._

He staggered through the door into the next room, and he felt his spirit soar at a sight he hadn't seen in months.

Sunlight.

It was shining through tiny tears in a heavy curtain, and he smiled crazily and dragged himself towards it. Finally, he could end this.

_No, my prince!_

His laugh came out as a strangled cough as he shuffled forward, and he grabbed the curtain with one trembling arm, took a breath, and pulled.

The heavy fabric, weak from age and neglect, came apart easily, and Gabriel received a brief view of light so bright that he couldn't see beyond it, before his body filled with the worst agony he had ever felt. His howl of pain cracked the window glass, but he ignored that as every nerve ending in his body fired off messages of heat, burning heat. Smoke billowed off of him as his howls turned into screams, and then he burst into flames.

The cracking fire covered his front side from head to toe. His hair went up quickly, his skin burned and melted and dripped to the floor. He screamed as his body began to wither under the intense heat, and his instincts screamed for him to get away, to hide in a dark place, but he ignored them. This was going to end today.

_Please, my prince!_

His vision vanished as his eyes melted and ran down what was left of his face, and his screaming was brought to a halt when the inside of his mouth and throat also caught fire. The flames raced down his neck and destroyed his voice, but he still screamed silently as the heat consumed him.

He stumbled back away from the light, even as he berated himself for doing so. His burned body seemed to have a will of it's own, and he collapsed to the floor. If he could have, he would have screeched in protest as his burns came in contact with the hard stone, but the sound came out as quiet gurgles. The flames quickly went out once he was out of the sunlight, and he began to slowly drag himself away. His thirst burned stronger than ever, feeling only just below the burning of the fire that had consumed him only seconds before.

He heard blood bubbling up nearby, and though he couldn't smell it with his nose destroyed, he was able to follow the sound and drag himself across the floor towards it. He didn't want to drink. He wanted to die. He wanted to stop hurting. He lowered his ruined face to the pool and let it splash onto him, and instantly, he felt his face starting to heal. He submerged his face and drank deeply, and he felt a burning, much softer and more pleasant than the burning of the thirst of the fire, running through his mouth and down his throat. It hit his stomach and spread outward through his veins to the rest of his body. He drank and drank and drank, and he felt his burns healing, banishing the agony he was in. His eyesight winked back into existence as his eyes regenerated, and he closed newly formed eyelids over them as he kept drinking.

The last of his pain melted away, and with his thirst finally sated, he raised his head from the pool. Blood dripped from his hair, and he looked at his reflection to see no sign that he had been injured.

He couldn't help it; he laughed.

He laughed like he hadn't in years, laughed as it echoed off the walls, ceiling, and floor, laughed as the sound filled the rooms and halls of the castle. He laughed louder, the sound growing in pitch and volume as he realized that not even death was an option for him. He looked down at his reflection again, and he saw the tears on his face just as his eyesight blurred, and a sob slipped out. Hope withered and died, and despair rose to take it's place.

Cries echoed through the spaces that laughter had just filled, the blood pool dried up, and he laid his head down on the floor and sobbed out his misery.

_You belong to me now._

He didn't say anything, instead he only nodded in agreement, and he heard the whisper of cloth sliding across the floor towards him. He didn't raise his head to look; he just cried as he felt the soft touch of fabric brushing across his legs and wrapping around him. It was different from the ropes that had bound him earlier. The touch of the fabric seemed to be that of concern, like a parent soothing a distraught child, and he made no attempt to get away from it as it wound around him.

_Rest, my prince._

_We will take care of you._

_We will protect you._

_No one will hurt you here._

Swaddled in the soft fabric, Gabriel closed his eyes and cried himself to sleep.

**OOOOOO**

Edeline abruptly sat up in bed and looked around the room. The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, and the first rays of light were banishing the shadows in the room. There was no one in the room aside from her and Wolfram, but she swore that she had heard that.

"Edeline?" Wolfram asked quietly as he sat up in bed. "What is the matter?"

She didn't answer for a moment. She looked out the window at the tiny village they were in. Wygol Village stood in the shadow of Benhard Castle, and it was still recovering for several hundred years of being fed upon by the vampiric Lord of Shadow and her ilk. She and Wolfram were in what passed for the village inn, a tiny room in the upper floor of a house, but it sufficed. Through the grimy window, she could see the buildings on the other side of the square, and just beyond that, she could see the shadow of the massive castle as it loomed over the tiny hamlet.

They had wanted to go to the castle as soon as they arrived the previous night, but the villagers had warned them that any that were in the castle after dark never came back out, so they had to wait until daybreak. They had also told them of how the castle had gone silent for many days after Carmilla's defeat at Gabriel Belmont's hands, but over the winter, they had heard a new voice. Yells, screams, cries, and most recently, hysterical laughter, were all carried on the wind down to the village.

"Edeline?"

"We have to go, Wolfram." she said quietly, and then she threw the covers back and got up. "We have to go now. Gabriel needs us."

He reached to stop her, but she shook him off. "Be sensible, Edeline. We cannot just run up there. We know nothing about the castle; we need a map of some kind and perhaps a guide. We also can't go running through there without eating something first. Who knows how long we will be in there?"

She threw her dress on and slipped her soft leather shoes onto her feet. "Then you can find a map and a guide. I am going to get my son!" She heard him stand up, and then he grabbed her by the arms and turned her to face him. "Let go of me, Wolfram!" she snapped as she tried to throw him off.

"What has gotten into you, woman?" he demanded as he gave her a little shake. "Calm yourself!"

She looked up at her husband and shook her head as her chin trembled. "It's just that he's up there, and he's all alone, and he's so frightened. The villagers have been hearing him cry out, and I... I heard him too. Our baby _needs_ us, Wolfram, and he needs us now."

Wolfram's grip on her arms loosened as his the stern look on his face softened into one of love and concern, and she leaned into him as he put his arms around her.

"You heard him?" he asked quietly.

"It woke me up. He's so scared up there, all alone in that horrible place."

She heard him sigh. "Alright, let me get dressed, and then we'll go."

She raised her head and gave him a watery smile, and he let go of her to go dress himself.

A few minutes later, they went downstairs where they waved off offers of breakfast for their host, stating that they urgently needed to get to the castle.

"May God go with you!" the woman called out as they walked out of the house onto the snow covered road.

High up in the mountains, winter had not yet relaxed its grip, and Edeline was grateful for her heavy fur cloak as she pulled it tighter around herself. Wolfram went off in search of their carriage and driver, while she waited for them in front of the house. As she waited, she felt a tug on her cloak and looked down to see a small boy standing next to her. He was not dressed for the weather at all, but he wasn't shivering or showing that he noticed the cold at all as he reached up to her with a small leather pouch in his hand.

"Take it," he said with a smile that made her want to hug him, "they will keep you safe."

She smiled at him, took the pouch from him, and patted him on his soft brown curls. "Are you sure, child?"

He smiled again, and it was reflected in his blue eyes, which seemed to banish the cold around her. "I am sure. You will need His protection where you are going, and it will make it easier for you to find him."

The sound of horse hooves and carriage wheels on snow made her looked up to see their carriage rolling up to her, and she looked down at the little boy to thank him, but he had run off and was nowhere in sight. The carriage rolled up to her and stopped, and Wolfram opened the door from inside and helped her climb in. She settled onto the bench beside him as they rolled out of town. The road that led into the village was on the left fork of the main road. The right fork led up to the castle, and soon they were on their way.

Edeline watched silently through the carriage window as the massive structure came ever closer, and she felt her heart sink. It was far larger than she had expected, larger than any castle she had seen before. How were they to find Gabriel in that place? She felt Wolfram squeeze her hand, and she looked at him and managed a wan smile.

"We will find him." he said firmly. "We're not leaving here without him."

The carriage came to a sudden stop, and Edeline was unprepared for the jolt. Only Wolfram's arm kept her from being thrown off the bench. The door opened, and their driver appeared.

"My apologies, my lord, but the horses refuse to go any closer. There's something evil about that place that they don't like it."

"That is fine." Wolfram said as he stood up. "We will walk from here." He climbed down from the carriage, and held out his hand to her to help her do the same.

Edeline stepped down to the frozen road and looked up at their destination. From up close, the structure looked even more foreboding, and her sudden shiver had nothing to do with the cold.

"Return to the village." she heard Wolfram tell the driver. "We will return on foot."

"But my lord!"

"Do as you're told, and wait for us to return!"

"But why would you want to go in that place alone?"

"We have our reasons, now go. We will return as soon as we can."

Edeline kept her eyes on the castle before them as Wolfram spoke to the driver, and after a moment, she heard the cracking of the reins as the carriage returned to the village below. Wolfram took her by the arm, and without a word, they began their trek towards the castle. It was a magnificent building, she thought as they approached it, and during its heyday, it had to be a wonder to behold. Even now, as parts of it began to crumble, it was still an amazing sight. She shivered again as she looked upon it. It's beauty was just a mask for the horrors that had taken place within, and now their son was in there, alone.

After a half hour of walking, they reached the castle gates, and Edeline sighed in relief. Despite their heavy clothing and cloaks, the wind cut across them like a knife, and she was cold and stiff. She could barely feel her feet and her hands. The gates were open, and as they walked through them, she felt sudden warmth from her hands and looked down.

She was still holding the leather pouch in her hand, and it was rapidly growing warm in her fingers. She stopped for a second, ignoring the wind and Wolfram's confusion, and opened it up. She saw what was inside and gasped.

"Edeline?"

Wordlessly, she reached into the pouch and pulled out a small crucifix on a chain. The craftsmanship was exquisite; she could see the individual folds on the wrap around Christ's waist, but that was not what surprised her so.

It was solid silver and polished to a mirror shine. Where had that boy come by such a thing? She looked up at Wolfram to see him staring at the crucifix with his mouth hanging open, and she glanced down into the pouch to see two more. She felt faint at the thought of a child possessing such wealth, and then handing it over to a stranger without a word. Where had he come by them?

Wolfram stepped up to her, and he took the crucifix she held in her hand, lifted her hair, and fastened the chain around her next. Immediately, she felt the cold around her lessen, and she looked up to find that the castle seemed much less threatening than it had before. She pulled a second crucifix from the bag and handed it to her husband, and he quickly put it on. She then closed the pouch and held it tight in her hand. She did not want to lose the third one.

Wolfram held his arm out to her. "Shall we my dear? Our son is waiting."

She took it. "Yes, we shall."

They walked up to the massive front doors, and to her surprise, they opened easily at Wolfram's push. They stepped through them and into a large entrance hall, lined with gigantic statues on the right wall, and three large windows on the left. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and candle stands were scattered everywhere, but none of them were lit. The only light was the sunlight coming through the windows.

Edeline shivered again and pulled his cloak around her, despite the fact that they were out of the wind.

"Wolfram..." she said quietly.

"I know," he said softly, "I feel it too. We're not welcome here."

There was no one in the hall save for them, but she could feel a gaze on her, a gaze that was in no way friendly. Her skin broke out on goosebumps as they stood there, and she found herself backing up towards the doors. Wolfram shut them to shut out the wind, and the sound of them closing made her think of the sealing of a tomb. They were inside the castle, along with their son, and whatever else called the place home.

It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

At the end of the room was an open portcullis, and it led into a second room that was larger than the first. Their footsteps were muffled by the worn carpet under their feet, but they still echoed in the large space. As they walked, Edeline glimpsed what appeared to be either a meeting room or a chapel through a doorway along the right wall. The room was in the same state of disrepair and neglect as the entrance hall, but it also appeared as though a battle had taken place within, if the broken remains of the furniture were anything to go by.

At the end of the second room was a set up steps and two statues, of what, she couldn't hope to guess. Between them was a second portcullis, and an ornate pair of tall, red, ornate double doors. All were open, so they were able to walk through into a square room that appeared to have some kind of game board set into the floor, with the game pieces being large, life sized statues on pedestals. In the center of the board was a staircase leading down, but they ignored that. Something told her that Gabriel was not down there. There were two exits from the room, one in the right corner, and one in the left. The right one was blocked by a cave in, so it was the one on the left they walked through.

That doorway led to a long corridor, and it branched off to the left just before it ended on a balcony that overlooked a large room. Edeline clamped her hand over her mouth, but even that wasn't enough to completely stop her scream. The floor of the large room, which was littered with broken chairs and tables, which also splattered with blood and covered with the scattered remains of human bodies. Bones were thrown about carelessly, and scraps of bloodied cloth could be seen here and there.

She didn't protest when Wolfram pulled her back and into the corridor that branched off to the left that they had spotted just before coming in there. She didn't want to see any more of that room at all. She found herself shaking a little as they walked away.

The branching corridor was long, and ended in a large circular room that was missing part of its exterior wall and floor. The door at the end, framed by a carving of a demon's head, was open, and she tried not to look at it as they passed through.

_You can't have him._

Edeline latched onto Wolfram's arm. "Did you hear that?" she whispered.

He nodded. "I did. I think we may have met the castle's inhabitant, at least one of them. Let's keep moving."

She nodded shakily, but her eyes continuously scanned the area for the source of the voice, but she saw nothing. Nothing but rot, decay, and shadows.


	8. Family: 7

**A/N: Don't get used to this posting schedule, okay? I'm on a roll, but I don't know for how much longer.**

**OOOOOO**

**7.**

He was warm.

He was safe.

Where was he?

Why did he even care?

He looked around but saw nothing but an endless expanse of darkness. What was that?

_I have you now._

_We will take care of you._

_You belong to us now._

That.. didn't sound so bad. Gabriel happily snuggled down into the soft material that he could feel wrapped around him and leaned back against the padded surface behind him. He could stay here forever.

He felt hands on him again, but they did not bother him anymore.

_You are ours._

With a sigh, Gabriel fell asleep with a faint smile on his face.

**OOOOOO**

How long does this castle go on for? Wolfram thought as they ran into yet another dead end. He sighed as he raked his hair, which was covered in dust and cobwebs, back from his forehead and looked around. The castle was a veritable maze, which was worsened by its poor condition. Doors were blocked off, rooms were caved in, and entire corridors were collapsed, which forced them to backtrack frequently.

The entire place gave him the shivers. They had seen no sign that anyone lived in the castle, yet candles and torches were lit in many places, and sometimes he swore he heard footsteps other than theirs, as well as doors opening and closing, and the entire place seemed to breath like some vast creature. However, the worst part by far were the voices.

They followed them wherever they went, whispering voices that came from the shadows. They told them that they were not welcome, that they couldn't have him, that he was theirs now. It didn't take much to figure that they were talking about Gabriel, which only increased his resolve to find his son and get him out of there. There was no telling what kind of nefarious plans the castle had for him.

_He is mine!_

Wolfram shuddered, and beside him, he felt Edeline do the same. Where was he? Hours had passed since they had come into the castle, and they were running out of daylight. He didn't want to think about being lost in this cursed place after dark. They had been through so many rooms: a playroom that had it's roof partially collapsed in, a large laboratory of some kind, bedrooms, libraries, and countless hallways and corridors, and he reckoned that they hadn't even explored half of the castle yet.

It was actually a relief when they walked up a long outdoor staircase and into a room that was different than the rest. The large circular room was open to the sky, and its walls were lined with statues of men holding swords. The floor was mostly gone, leaving only a narrow pathway that was littered with broken masonry that led to a large mirror set into the opposite wall. It was simply massive, almost three times Wolfram's height, and about half of that in width. It was framed by a dragon on each side, in a sitting position, wings extended.

"What is that doing here?" Edeline wondered.

Wolfram had to agree with her. "It does look very out of place here, doesn't it?"

"Let's go see..." she mumbled, and she began to walk towards it.

"Edeline, wait!" He chased after her, but she ignored his calls for her to wait. She simply glided across the ruined floor as if she were dancing to some unheard music. It wasn't until they were standing in front of the mirror that she seemed to come back to herself, and she shook her head and looked at him in confusion.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She nodded faintly. "I think so. I don't know what came over me. I just had to see the mirror." She turned to look at it.

Wolfram did the same, and he was forced to take a step back when it began to shine with a bright light of its own making. He pulled Edeline back with him as she gasped.

"What is this?" she whispered.

"I don't know."

The light from the mirror dimmed, and Wolfram gasped just as his wife had done when the reflective surface vanished, leaving an image of a room that they hadn't seen in years in it's place.

"Mathias' nursery." he breathed. "What devilry is this?"

The nursery was as they had left it on that evening so long ago. There was Mathias sleeping in his cradle in front of the fireplace, while his nurse worked on needlework nearby. There was no sound accompanying the images, but he was able to tell when the attack began. The door rattled three times in quick succession, as though someone was knocking on it. The nurse looked up from her needlework and stared at the door for a second, then she tossed it aside and began to drag everything she could in front of the door. Her efforts were pointless though, as the door was ripped from it's hinges, and the furniture and other items she had piled up were smashed to pieces by the men coming through.

She put herself between them and the cradle and refused to move, and though she was unarmed, Wolfram smiled with pride to see her facing down several armed men. When she refused to stand aside, one of them attacked her, and in a contest of bare hands against cold steel, she had no chance. The men in the red cloaks paid no mind to the young life that one of their own had just ended, instead they only walked up to the cradle, while two of them stood guard at the door. One of the men around the cradle knelt down to pick Mathias up, and as he stood with the screaming infant in his arms, the light from the fire allowed Wolfram to get a glimpse of his face under his hood.

"Cardinal Volpe!" he snarled. "That bastard!" Though the face was younger, and the hair had color to it, it was definitely the man that had been asking to have a compound built on their land. "I am going to kill him!"

"Not if I get to him first!" Edeline hissed. "He stole our baby, and after doing that, he wants to ask favors of us! He's going to hang for this!"

The moving image vanished as Volpe walked out of the nursery with Mathias in his arms, and a new image took its place. It showed a boy, perhaps about seven or so, running through a meadow with a girl of about the same age. His brown hair was full of leaves and pollen, and his green eyes were alight with the joy of a child having fun. The girl, with brown hair and eyes of the same color, was chasing after him in the bright afternoon sunshine, and Wolfram imagined he could hear their laughter as they ran about.

"He looks so happy." Edeline said softly. "That's our boy, Wolfram."

The image faded and was replaced with one that was inside a small church, the chapel at the Brotherhood compound, Wolfram realized. A man that could almost be his twin was standing at the altar, his eyes alight with love as he watched his soon to be bride walk up the isle on the arm of her father. The father of the bride handed the woman – an older version of the girl they had seen before – over to the man she was to marry, and stood aside.

"We should have been there." Wolfram said softly. The pews were filled with member of the Brotherhood on the right side, with the bride's family on the left, and Volpe officiating. There was still no sound, but they were able to watch their son and his wife recite their vows to each other and share their first kiss and husband and wife. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Edeline dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, and he had to wipe away a bit of moisture that was gathering in his own eyes as well.

The scene faded as the new couple walked out of the chapel to the cheers of their wedding guests, and the image that replaced it made Edeline laugh with joy. Their daughter-in-law was sitting propped up in bed, cradling an infant in her arms. She smiled and rocked him, and at any moment they expected Gabriel to walk into the image to see his son.

But he did not, instead Volpe and a group of Brotherhood elders walked into the frame. Wolfram growled at the sight of them as they spoke to the new mother and showed her a fragment of some kind hanging on a cord. She looked at it for a long moment, handed it back, and then hung her head and said nothing as Volpe and the other walked out with her baby. Instead she only hid her face in her hands and cried.

"She let them take Trevor!" Wolfram growled in outrage. "She just let them walk out of there with him! Where was Gabriel during all of this!"

The mirror seemed to answer his question by showing them a series of moving pictures, showing Gabriel leaving his home during the early summer as his wife waved from the door, and as soon as he had mounted his horse and rode off, she placed her hand over her womb and smiled faintly. The mirror then followed Gabriel through the changing seasons as he tracked down and sealed away some kind of demonic monster. He didn't return home until the late spring.

"He never knew." Wolfram whispered in horror. "He never knew that his wife had bore him a son. That's why he never returned for Trevor; he doesn't know the boy exists."

The mirror changed images, and it showed Gabriel and his wife enjoying a walk through the woods. They encountered an elderly member of the Brotherhood, who after seemingly pleasant greetings attacked them. Gabriel fought to protect his wife, but he was quickly subdued by some kind of mask being pushed onto his face. He went completely still, and he didn't react as the other man pushed his wife down onto a log and handed him an ax. Gabriel took the ax and walked mindlessly, with no light in his eyes, up to his unconscious wife, and raised the ax...

Wolfram was glad there was no sound as he turned his head; he didn't need to see the rest.

The mirror showed a new series of pictures then, of Gabriel going on his quest, his journey through the wilds, destroying the first Lord of Shadow, and then killing another young woman under the influence of that mask again. It showed him journeying through Bernhard Castle and destroying the second Lord of Shadow in the same room they were in.

"At least we know what happened to the floor." Wolfram said weakly.

Gabriel was then shown journeying through the Land of the Dead as he hunted down the final Lord of Shadow, of how he was betrayed by his guide, who happened to be the one that had caused him to murder his wife and the young woman. Wolfram wanted to reach into the mirror and grab his son when he saw him break down as he realized what he had done, and he nearly screamed with joy when he saw him get back up, ready to do battle.

Then Satan appeared.

Edeline screamed, and Wolfram stumbled back from the mirror. "It's true, he really did..." he stuttered. "Oh my God!"

Satan destroyed the final Lord of Shadow, and Wolfram stared in disbelief as his son, already tired and worn down, faced Satan bravely, without a hint of fear. Despite using the God Mask, the Prince of Darkness could not hope to stand against God's Chosen, and Wolfram did cheer when Gabriel sent him back to Hell where he belonged.

The trapped souls of the dead were freed, and Gabriel and his wife enjoyed one last moment together before she too had to move on. Gabriel was left on his knees, sobbing, as she ascended without him.

"My boy, my baby." Edeline's voice trembled. "It's over now; we're here, and we're going to take you home."

The mirror changed images again.

"What now?" Wolfram demanded, feeling a little heartsick at seeing all his son had been through.

The mirror showed Bernhard Castle again, the room with the game board set into the floor, and it showed a still clearly grieving Gabriel, and the vampire child that they had seen before descending the steps in the floor. The pair went through a large underground area of the castle, working together to move forward, until they came to a dead end. They opened some kind of doorway, and Gabriel spoke to the child and began to walk towards it, but she caught him by the sleeve and stopped him. She bit into her wrist and offered the bleeding wound to him as she spoke to him. Gabriel looked at her for a moment, and then he lowered his head to her wrist and began to drink.

"No," Wolfram whispered, "Gabriel, what have you done?"

Gabriel stopped drinking for a moment, and the child begged him to keep going, which he did. Once it was done, his mouth and chin were smeared with blood, while he cradled her still body in one arm. She dissolved into nothingness then, and he turned and entered the doorway. He entered a place that could be best described as Hell, with lava flows and red rocks everywhere. He walked forward and into an open area, and Edeline screamed again when they saw what he had gone in there for.

They watched in horror as their now vampiric son tracked down the large demon and faced him in combat twice. They saw that, even after he was defeated, the demon was not destroyed, and he was using his power to enter the world of men. Gabriel, in desperation, leapt forward and grabbed the demon's power for himself, and then he destroyed it completely as it begged for its life. He then shattered his combat cross, and returned to the human world, and hid himself away in the castle.

The mirror went dark then, and Wolfram looked at his wife.

"Our son is a vampire." he said quietly.

"And he's taken the powers of a demon." she added.

"What do we do?"

"He's still our son, Wolfram."

He nodded once in agreement. "And he needs us." He turned to face the mirror. "Where is he now?"

The mirror shone with light again for a moment, and when that light faded, it showed a room they had not yet seen. It was obviously a throne room of some sort, with six large pillars carved with reliefs of angels holding up the ceiling, and two large sets of double doors, one at the end opposite the throne, and one on the right side of the room. Four tall stands stood on a dais by the throne, two on each side, and they were burning with a bright blue flame.

The high backed throne was sitting in the middle of the dais against the wall, and it had an occupant.

"Gabriel," Wolfram breathed as he laid eyes on his son, reclining in the throne and seemingly asleep. He was wound in a red cloth, and Wolfram couldn't help but think that he looked like a swaddled infant. "How do we get to him?"

The mirror flashed yet again, and this time it began to show a route out of the room they were in that would lead them straight to the throne room. Wolfram looked up towards a room positioned high up; that had to be it.

"We're coming, Gabriel. Just hold on."

The two of them turned away from the mirror and walked quickly back the way they had came, and Wolfram led them through the twisted maze of corridors as quickly as possible.

_You will not take him from me._

Wolfram ignored the voice, even as his wife shivered. He was going to find their son, and nothing was going to stand in their, not even a demonic castle.

Finally, after a long trek through dwindling light, they reached the hall that ran straight into the throne room. A large gate separated them from the hallway, but that gate was open. They were almost there. Soon they would be able to hold their son in their arms for the first time in 25 years.

The gate slammed shut, and the loud _clang!_ echoed through the castle.

_He belongs to me now._

_You can't have him._

_You won't take him from us._

Wolfram grabbed a hold of it and pulled, and though there was no lock that he could see, it wouldn't open.

"Open this gate!" he raged at the castle around them.

_The prince does not wish to be disturbed._

"Let us through!" Edeline shouted.

_He does not belong to you._

"That's my son you're holding prisoner! Now open this gate!"

The castle's response came in the form of mocking laughter.

"You're not going to keep my away from my baby," Edeline snapped as she strode forward, "any longer!" She swung at the gate, and to their surprise, there was a flash of white light, a screech of pain from the castle, and the gate sprang open. Wolfram looked at his wife, and then as one, the two of them looked at the leather pouch with the remaining crucifix that she was still holding in her hand.

Wolfram shook his head. "Let's not waste any more time." Edeline nodded, and the two of them ran through the open gate, took a right turn, and ran straight up to the throne room doors. Those doors also refused to open, but Wolfram pressed the crucifix he was wearing around his neck to them, and they flew open just as the gate had.

They stepped inside the throne room, and both of them paused at what they saw.

"He's really here." Edeline said in awe. "Our baby's really here."

Gabriel was in the throne, just as they had seen him in the mirror, and he appeared to be asleep. Edeline ran towards him, and Wolfram followed her. He wanted to warn her not to startle him, but he couldn't make himself say the words. She reached him first, though he was right behind her. She cupped Gabriel's face in her hands.

"Gabriel?"

He stirred, and one eye cracked open, giving them a glimpse of the red iris before it closed, and his head lolled to the side.

"Gabriel?" Edeline called gently. "Can you hear us? We're going to take you home now." Gabriel whimpered quietly in response, and Wolfram found he couldn't stand by any longer. Without hesitating, he reached out and scooped Gabriel out of the throne and into his arms. He looked down at his son's sleeping face and felt his heart swell with the emotions that warred for dominance within it. He had his _son_ in his arms! His son!

Who was a vampire.

Who had taken the powers of a demon for his own.

That wasn't important! he told himself firmly. He had his son in his arms, and now they could take him home and love him like parents should.

There was a low growl that seemed to come from everywhere at once, and the room trembled.

"Let's go." he said. "We need to get out of here quickly. Keep your crucifix out; we might need it to open doors for us."

"Oh that reminds me." Edeline opened the leather pouch and fished out the third crucifix. Without thinking she reached over to Gabriel and fastened it around his neck before Wolfram could stop her. He stood and waited, expecting Gabriel to scream, to writhe in pain as the holy artifact burned him, but no such thing happened.

"It's not hurting him." he said in confusion, and Edeline looked queasy at the though of accidentally injuring their son before she pushed the swaddling away from his neck to get a better look. There was nothing, no burning, no smoke, nothing that hinted that the crucifix was in any way dangerous to Gabriel. If he hadn't seen that same crucifix just open a gate and cause pain to the castle itself, he would think it didn't have any power at all. She tucked the swaddling back into place and stepped back.

"Can you carry him that far?" she asked as her brow furrowed in concern.

He hitched Gabriel higher up into his arms to make it easier to carry him. "I'll manage. Let's go. I want to get as far away from here as we can, the sooner the better." Gabriel moaned quietly at the motion, and as much as Wolfram wanted to comfort him, they had to get away first, before the castle became even more demonstrative.

They walked quickly out of the throne room and began to backtrack the way that had come. The castle growled and snarled, but made no move to stop them.

We really have our son, Wolfram repeated over and over in his mind. We really have him, and we're really taking him home.

They back tracked to the mirror room with no trouble, but by then Wolfram's arms were shaking with the strain of carrying Gabriel's weight. He knelt down and laid his boy gently on the floor, and that was when the castle finally made it's move.

_I am taking back what is mine. _came the angry growl, and Wolfram was knocked backward by an explosion of... something that erupted from the floor. He heard Edeline scream, and he also heard Gabriel cry out in fear. He landed against the wall, and he looked up to see Edeline getting to her feet a few feet further down, while Gabriel was still lying in the center of the hallway.

"Gabriel!" she cried out, and Wolfram followed her gaze as the metallic scent of blood filled the air. He ran forward to scoop Gabriel up, but a wave of red blood rose up and knocked him back again. He landed in a heap against the wall again, and he shook his head and looked up to see that blood wave poised over Gabriel like a predator preparing to strike.

"NO!" He couldn't lose his boy, not now, not after finding him again, not while they were so close!

The wave crashed down over Gabriel, covering him completely, and Wolfram ran forward again, to do what he wasn't sure, but before he could take more than a few steps, there was a pained scream that came from the very walls, and the blood was blown away and scattered in all directions. He finally reached Gabriel to see that there wasn't a drop of blood on him, and he saw the fading glow from the crucifix around his neck.

He didn't stop to think; he scooped Gabriel up again and stood up -

"Run Edeline!"

- and the two of them bolted down the hallway, tiredness forgotten for the moment.

_He is mine!_

As they ran, torches and candles went out, doors slammed closed, debris fell down from the ceiling, and it seemed as though the castle was tearing itself apart to prevent them from getting Gabriel out. They made it back to the mirror room as the floor behind them collapsed, and then the entire mirror room shook like an earthquake and fell in on itself.

_You can't have him!_

The staircase began to collapse after them, and they made it back inside just ahead of it, but they still couldn't stop. There was an enraged roar from the walls as they ran down the hallway to the lift that took them down through the clockwork tower. They stood on the platform as it descended, as the tower fell down around them, and the platform shook and shuddered all the way down. Somehow they made it to the bottom, and they ran out of the tower just as it crashed down onto itself. They ran back outside and to the narrow bridge that they had crossed earlier, and much as Wolfram wanted to run across, that simply wasn't possible. The wind blew hard across it, and it's surface was slick with ice. Edeline was already inching her way across.

He stepped out onto the narrow bridge as he heard a groan from behind him, and he expected the bridge to go slack as it lost one of its supports, but nothing happened. Perhaps the castle was worried about injuring or killing Gabriel? The fall was certainly high enough.

He didn't want to think about that.

He crept across the narrow wind whipped surface, and he used Gabriel's weight as a balancing pole, hoping that he wouldn't wake suddenly and move about. The wind whipped Gabriel's hair and the cloth he was wrapped in around, and Wolfram imagined that it wanted to tear him out of his arms. Edeline was waiting for them in the tower in the center, and her worry was plain in her eyes as she watched them.

The sun was nearly gone by the time he made it across, and he could barely see where he was going. He wanted to keep moving, but with barely any sunlight to see by, it was too dangerous to cross the other bridge. His arms too, desperately need a rest. Fear for their lives could only carry him so far.

He stepped onto the snow covered tower roof and looked at Edeline.

"We need to stop for a while," he shouted over the shrieking wind. "I think there is a room below us. Let's go there and rest for a bit."

Edeline nodded in understanding, and she led him down the small path to the side that spiraled along the side of the tower and went into a tunnel that had a set of steps. The steps followed the curve of the tower and ended in a small circular room within the tower itself. Two windows, one on either side of the room, let in the rapidly fading sunlight, while candles on stands gave the room a soft yellow light. There was a gate that could be closed over the doorway, but Wolfram opted to leave it open in case they had to make a quick escape.

"Do you think we're safe here?" Edeline asked worriedly as she wrung her hands.

"I think so." Wolfram replied as he laid Gabriel down on the floor against the wall opposite the door. "I think that while the castle doesn't want Gabriel to leave, it doesn't want to risk hurting him either, otherwise it would have collapsed the bridges under us." He sat down next to Gabriel and sighed. His entire body was shaking from exhaustion and the sudden unaccustomed exercise.

Edeline came and sat down beside them. "I just hope we can get out of here soon." She reached out and gently brushed Gabriel's hair out of his face.

"I think we should wait until morning."

Her head whipped up to stare at him. "Why? What are you saying?"

"Think Edeline! I want to get out of here as quickly as you do, but the sun is nearly gone -" He gestured out the window which was closest to the door. The sun was only a barely visible slit of light on the horizon. "- and it is already too dark to see. We need light to make it out of of the castle, especially if it's going to try and kill us again. And finally, my arms are too tired to carry Gabriel any further. I need to rest before I can keep going."

"But the sunlight, Wolfram. Gabriel is a vampire."

Wolfram paused; how could he have forgotten that? "Damn it." he swore quietly. He looked about the small room and saw that the two windows had ragged curtains. "We'll just have to wrap him up real tight before we go and hope the sunlight won't burn him if he's covered."

"And if it does?"

"Then we wait for sundown and hope for the best." He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment. The small room went silent then save for their breathing and the wind howling around them, but after a few minutes, he heard Edeline moving about, and he opened his eyes to look.

She carefully sat Gabriel up and sat down against the wall in that spot before lying him back down, with his head resting on her lap. She tucked the swaddling around him in the places it had come loose, and then turned her head to look at him.

"Why don't you take a quick nap, Wolfram?" she suggested. "We've had a long day, and you need to be able to carry Gabriel out of here tomorrow."

No, he didn't want to nap. Despite what he had said, he didn't trust the castle to collapse the tower once their guard was down, but Edeline did have a point, and they couldn't go anywhere at the moment anyway. It helped that, for some unknown reason, the castle's evil presence didn't feel quite as strong where they were. Maybe it was because they were quite some distance from the main structure, but whatever the reason, he wasn't going to complain about it.

Instead he nodded in agreement to his wife's suggestion, leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes. The last thing he heard before falling asleep was Edeline's voice, singing a lullaby to Gabriel.


	9. Family: 8

**A/N: My carpal tunnel REALLY hates me now. XD**

**8.**

There was a new voice talking to him, a woman's voice. It called him by name instead of "my lord" or my prince". Only the castle's voice called him by name.

He felt another hand stroking his hair and the voice sang to him. The castle never sang to him.

_You will never leave here._

He shivered at the feared sound, and the singing voice stopped singing to say something to him, but he didn't understand the words.

_You belong to me, Gabriel Belmont! _He saw a face then in the darkness that surrounded him, and it had white eyes, and blood dripped from its mouth. He cried out in fear and tried to turn away, but it was everywhere he looked. _You are mine, and you will never leave here!_

Gabriel tried to close his eyes, but he could still see it staring at him, and his soul shrank away in fear. "Go away!"

**OOOOOO**

"Go away!"

Gabriel's voice, and the obvious fear in it, startled Edeline awake. She blinked her eyes open to find that they were still in that little tower room, that the sun was just starting to rise, and that Gabriel was still lying with his head on her lap.

"Gabriel?" she called softly as she sat up. "Gabriel? All you all right, dear one?" His entire body jerked as though he'd been kicked, and then he wailed, a sound that sent shivers down her spine. "Gabriel?" She grasped a hold of him and managed to tug him closer to her so she could cradle his upper body in her right arm. "Mama's here, Gabriel."

His eyes opened then, but they were wild and unfocused. The red irises were a further reminder that her son was no longer human, but she ignored that. Her son needed his mother; that was the important thing. She gently raked his hair out of his face. "It's all right, Gabriel." He wailed again, and then he began to cry.

She felt her heart break at the sight of Gabriel's tears, and she shimmied out from under him, laid him down on the floor, and then laid down beside him. She tugged him over and tucked his head under her chin, ignoring the sensible part of her that warned about the possibility of being bitten. That wasn't important. What was important was comforting her crying child. He nestled close to her, as if he craved the contact, and she put her arm around him and sang a little lullaby to him, like she had done all those years ago when she last cradled him in her arms.

She saw Wolfram out of the corner of her eye, and he smiled at the two of them before he came and laid down on Gabriel's other side. He hummed along with her lullaby as he ran his fingers over Gabriel's hair. Gabriel closed his eyes, and Edeline felt him begin to relax, and a minute or so later, he began to quiet.

"That's right." she cooed. "Just calm down. We're here with you, and we won't let anyone hurt you." Not even those bastards from the Brotherhood, she added silently.

With a few last hiccups and sniffles, Gabriel went quiet, but that quiet did not last. As the light in the small room brightened up, he whimpered quietly, and then he whined. Wolfram stood up, and she looked up and watched him as he moved to the east window and pulled the curtain closed over it. Gabriel let out a little sigh, and then he went quiet again.

"We have to get moving soon." Wolfram said, and with that, he moved over to the other window and took down the curtain. He shook the dust off it, which caused a cloud to billow up off of it for a moment, and then he walked back to her and Gabriel. It took the two of them to wrap him in the curtain, and they had to pause for a moment when he cried out in distress as they went to cover his face.

"Shhhhh," Edeline she said gently as she cupped his face in her hand. "Don't cry, Gabriel. We don't want the sun to hurt you when we take you outside." He looked at her with teary eyes, and for a second, she thought they focused on her before they started staring about wildly again. Wolfram covered his face then and used one of the tie cords from the window to hold the curtain in place so it couldn't come loose. Part of her felt uneasy at wrapping their son up like a body for burial, and a quick glance at Wolfram's face showed that he felt the same, but it had to be done until they were safely away from the castle and inside a dark place, preferably their carriage.

Wolfram hefted Gabriel up into his arms, and then he nodded at her. She looked at her husband's determined face for a moment and then let her eyes drift down to Gabriel's wrapped form. She nodded once and led the way out of the small room. She climbed up the stairs and then followed the path to the top of the tower, and she was relieved to note that the wind had lessened overnight. It hadn't stopped – there was probably always wind blowing at this altitude – but it was not as fierce as it had been.

She waited until Wolfram had joined her, and after a long look at him again, she began to inch her way across the narrow bridge that led to the other half of the castle. She grabbed her skirts in one hand to keep it from flapping around and getting tangled up in her legs, and she held her other arm out for balance. She didn't stop to look around at Wolfram, as much as she wanted to.

With the calmer winds, the walk across the bridge was easier than it had been the previous day, and she made it across the narrow path quickly. Only then did she allow herself to turn and look at her husband. Wolfram was barely halfway across, and he was moving very slow and watching carefully where he put each step before putting his foot down. He was holding onto Gabriel with a tight grip, and Gabriel himself was lying still in his father's arms and showing no sign that the sunlight was bothering him through his covers.

Edeline held her breath as she watched her husband inch over to her, and she let it out as a sigh when he stepped off of the bridge and onto the large outdoor balcony with her. Gabriel was whimpering quietly, and she reached out to touch him, but Wolfram brushed past her before she could.

"Let's keep moving." he said. "We can comfort him later." She nodded and followed him as he walked inside.

Gabriel did not quiet once they were inside. His whimpers turned into soft cries, and it was easy to understand why. The feeling of being surrounded by something evil was back in full force, and she could feel invisible eyes boring into her from every direction. She shivered and kept moving, wondering just how the castle was affecting Gabriel to make him react in such a way.

The voices kept silent as they walked down the corridors, back tracking their path back to the main entrance, but it was clear that something was harassing Gabriel, for he became more and more agitated as they walked on. He soft cries became louder, until he was bawling in Wolfram's arms, and he began to wiggle around in his wrappings, which made it hard for Wolfram to hold on to him. Finally, they were forced to stop, and then three of them sat on the floor, while Edeline pulled the wrapping away from Gabriel's face.

His face was damp with tears, and she spotted a few drops of dried blood on his lip from where he had apparently bitten himself. His eyes roved about the hallway for a moment before they focused on an area over her shoulder. She looked and saw nothing, but she knew that that didn't mean anything. Who knew what he was seeing.

He screamed then, and he tried to scoot away from whatever it was behind her. Wolfram pulled him against his own body, and Gabriel turned his head and hid his face in his father's shoulder, like a child trying to hide from a frightening sight.

"If we didn't need them to protect him," Wolfram said as he slowly rocked Gabriel back and forth, "I would throw these damned rags aside. I don't like the idea of any part of this castle touching him."

Gabriel screamed again, and Edeline moved to stand on her knees and moved as close to her husband and son as she could, sandwiching Gabriel between them. Two parents protecting their child, she thought as she began to stroke Gabriel's hair, which she could see was darker than it had been in the mirror. Two parents trying to protect their child from the evil around them.

Would it be enough?

There was a low growl from the walls around them, and Gabriel sobbed in terror. Wolfram threw the cover over his face again and stood up.

"Let's get going."

The growling from the walls turned into a furious snarl as they began walking, and as they moved through the laboratory, the entire structure began to shake. Gabriel wailed in fright -

_Give him back!_

- and masonry began to tumble down from the walls and ceiling as they ran out.

_Don't take our prince away!_

He's not yours! Edeline wanted to shout, but she had to save her breath for running for her life as they dashed outside and onto a crumbling pathway that led back towards the entrance hall. They dashed through the large circular room with the demon head over the doorway as what remained of it's floor cracked and began to crumble under their feet. Since she wasn't carrying a heavy weight, Edeline made it across first, and she leapt up onto the stable ledge under the door and turned back to look at Wolfram. He and Gabriel were sinking as the floor slowly collapsed, and with a mighty heave she hadn't thought he was capable off, he tossed Gabriel to her and leapt for the ledge himself.

Gabriel shrieked as she grabbed him by his swaddling and dragged him up with her, and then she grabbed for her husband as he hung from the ledge.

"Take Gabriel and go!" he shouted over the sounds of falling stone and shattering glass around them as the walls started to fall in.

"I'm not leaving you!" She grabbed him by his wrist and began to pull him up as the floor dropped out from under his feet. She could hear Gabriel crying beside her, and she backed away from the edge, still clinging to her husband's wrist. He scrambled for purchase with his other hand, and he dragged himself up onto the ledge as it began to crack underneath them. He scrambled to his feet, scooped Gabriel up, and then they ran down the hallway towards the dining hall.

Dust and rocks rained down from the ceiling as they ran, the statues fell into piles of rubble in their path, which forced them to lose precious time by climbing over them. Torches fell from the cracking walls, and one landed on the old carpet, igniting it. Gabriel wailed as they ran past it, and they reached the intersection in the dining hall and ran down to the right as the dining hall ceiling came down and a billowing dust cloud chased them. They reached the game room as the game board fell into the lower levels of the castle, and they were forced to slow down and creep around the outer edges of the floor as debris rained down on them from above.

The double doors to the entrance hall slammed shut as they reached them, but a quick press of a crucifix against them fixed that problem, and they ran out into the hall. Gabriel shrieked in pain as sunlight shining through the collapsing roof fell on him, and Edeline looked back to see Wolfram pausing to adjust the covering over his face.

"Hurry!" she shouted as the castle roared in full on rage -

_YOU CANNOT HAVE HIM!_

- and Wolfram finished what he was doing and ran towards her just as a large piece of the roof crashed down where he had been standing.

The windows blew in, and the glass shards caught the sunlight as they ran through them. They ran through the doorway as the archway collapsed, narrowly missing them, and another dust cloud billowed out of the little chapel off to the side. A quick glance as they passed by showed that it had collapsed in on itself. The roof crashed down in front of them, and Edeline shrieked and jumped back for a second before she began to climb over it. She turned to help Wolfram up, and she looked over his shoulder and saw the walls falling outward like an opening book.

She turned back towards their exit, and she saw a welcome sight. One of the massive front doors had fallen off its hinges, and sunlight, bright, welcoming sunlight, was shining through it.

_HE! IS! MINE!_

They scrambled over the rubble, and she looked up and froze in horror when she saw the entire front wall, bereft of its supports, falling towards them as it began to crumble.

"No..." she whispered as she watched it fall towards her in agonizing slow motion. There were so close... Large stones began to rain down around her...

"Edeline!" came Wolfram's voice in her ear, and she felt a sting against her cheek as he ran by. She shook her head as he hitched Gabriel higher in his arms and kept running, and she ran right after him.

The castle roared wordlessly in rage, Gabriel cried in fear, and she kept her eyes on that bright light as she ran towards it. The light was growing as the wall fell inward... stones were raining down everywhere... the entire castle was shaking under her feet... the other door fell and crashed to the floor...

And then she couldn't see Wolfram and Gabriel anymore as the were swallowed by the bright light, but she could still hear her baby's cries as she raced after them.

"Edeline! Jump!"

She didn't think; she leapt forward with both legs, and suddenly she was flying through the air, through what remained of the doorway and into the bright, early spring sunshine. She heard the crash of the front wall collapsing onto the entrance hall floor as she sailed over the massive front steps. They had made it! They were free! Gabriel was safe! She wanted to shout for joy!

Her jubilation was brought to a rude halt when gravity asserted itself, and she crashed down onto the steps and tumbled down them to land at the bottom. She felt something in her left knee pop, and then there was a flare of heat and pain from her right shoulder, and she rolled to a stop in the snowy courtyard at the base of the steps and stared up at the blue sky, chest heaving.

Wolfram was there suddenly, and he was pulling her to her feet and urging her away from the castle, and she pushed away from his supporting arm and hobbled away towards the road. He walked beside her, murmuring soothingly to Gabriel, who was still crying, as he went. Behind them, she could hear breaking glass and cracking stone as the castle continued to fall in on itself, and as they walked down the drive, there was a massive _crash!_ that made her shriek in surprise. Gabriel screamed, a long drawn out sound that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up as they turned to face the castle.

The main part of it was nothing but a pile of rubble, and the collapse seemed to move outward like a wave, spreading to the other buildings and towers, which them came down. She thought she heard one last whisper of defiance from it, and then its voices were silenced. Gabriel's scream stopped, leaving him crying in his father's arms once again, and they turned and walked down the drive towards the village.

They said nothing as they walked, not even to comfort Gabriel. His cries quieted as they moved away from the castle, but they did not stop, which made Edeline wonder what had him so upset. Or was it relief that he was finally away from that place? The sound of a cracking whip and horses' hooves on the road made her break off her thoughts and look up, and she smiled when she saw their carriage approaching.

"Remind me to give him a raise when we get home." Wolfram said in a tired voice as the carriage rolled up to them and stopped.

"My lord, my lady!" the driver said. "Thank Heavens you're all right! When you didn't return last night, many feared the worst!" He climbed down from his seat and opened the door for them. He looked at Gabriel but did not say anything. Instead he only helped Wolfram into the carriage. "When I heard that the castle was collapsing, I had to make sure you had gotten out safely." He smiled and offered Edeline and hand up, which she was glad to take. "I am so glad to see you."

Edeline managed a weak smile in return, but she didn't have anything to say as she climbed up inside. Her knee protested the step, but she ignored it as the door shut behind her. A few seconds later, she heard the crack of the whip, and with a jolt, the carriage began to move.

She shut the curtains over the east facing window, blocking out the sunlight, and then she moved over to Gabriel and Wolfram. Wolfram gave her a tired smile, and for a moment, she thought he was most gorgeous sight she had ever seen, covered in dirt, dust, and cobwebs from the castle, with bleeding cuts from flying debris on his face, and his finely made clothing looking like something fit for a rag bin. She knew she was in a similar state. She could feel blood dribbling down her face from the flying glass, and she could feel a draft from tears in her dress. Her knee was aching, and there was a hot throbbing from her shoulder, but she ignored that as she leaned forward and kissed Wolfram softly on the lips. He smiled at her again, and as one, they looked down at their son.

Gabriel was quieting as she pulled the covers away from his face, and she could see his teary red eyes, his white skin, his dark hair, and the two long, sharp eye teeth. No, she decided right then, Wolfram wasn't the most gorgeous thing she had ever seen. She cupped Gabriel's tear damp face in her hands and began to rain down kisses on him while Wolfram laughed. Gabriel closed his eyes and let out a little cry in protest, so instead she only threw her arms around him and crushed him to her as her own eyes filled with tears.

"My boy, my boy," she chanted as she rocked him. "You're here, you're really here. I have you now, and no one is ever going to take you away from me again." The desperate hope of the past several days, the fear of facing the castle, the joy of finding their son, the absolute terror from the castle's attempts to stop them, and the unbelievable happiness of having her son in her arms, away from the castle crashed down on her, and she began to cry herself. She made no attempt to stop it; she felt that she deserved a good cry after everything that had happened to them. She only hoped that her tears wouldn't upset Gabriel again.

She felt Wolfram scooting close to them, and she felt him put an arm around her shoulders, while his other arm went around Gabriel. She leaned into him as she held Gabriel tight as they rode back to the village, a family finally reunited.


	10. Family: 9

**A/N: So after a few days of rest, and a quick visit to a physical therapist to quiet my carpal tunnel down (Oh so painful, but I can feel my fingertips again!), I'm back with Chapter 9.  
**

**9.**

The castle's voices were silent.

The face was gone too.

He was warm again, and he no longer felt like some hideous monster was looming over him, prepared to strike. He heard other voices, two of them, but they did not torment him like the castle's voices did. They spoke to him in gentle tones that made him feel safe and protected, and sometimes they were accompanied by hands that ran through his hair. They felt nice, as did the arms that he could sometimes feel carrying him. He could stay like this forever, he decided. Decision made, he snuggled down into the soft surface he was lying on and went back to sleep.

**OOOOOO**

Wolfram blinked his eyes open and stared into the darkness of the room for a moment. Tiny slivers of dim, blue light were shining on the ceiling through a small gap in the curtains, which told him that it was still very early in the morning, and that the sun had not yet risen.. He could feel someone in the bed right next to him, but he knew it wasn't his wife. He could hear her quiet breathing on the other side of the bed, and he sat up and rubbed at his eyes before taking a look.

Edeline was sleeping deeply still, worn out from the constant effort of looking after Gabriel. Gabriel himself was lying between his parents in the large bed, wrapped in quilts that they had gotten at Wygol. He too was asleep, and Wolfram knew he would remain that way until the sun set in the evening. As dangerous as it was sharing a bed with a vampire, neither of them could bear the thought of making Gabriel lie on the floor.

Since they had left the rubble of Bernhard Castle, he was calmer, but he still had moments where he cried out and screamed at things only he could see. Then there were the times he would burst into tears for no reason that they could understand. As much as it pained him to admit it, Wolfram had days ago reached the conclusion that their son's mind had broken whilst trapped in the castle, and the Lord only knew if they could put it back together again. Having his parents close to him helped keep him calm though, hence the reason he slept between them whenever they stopped at an inn.

It had been six days since they had fled that cursed castle with Gabriel, and as much as they had wanted to leave for home immediately, none of them had been in any condition to do so. Keeping Gabriel hidden from the villagers had been impossible, but instead of being frightened of him, they had been delighted to see him alive, and they had filled Wolfram and Edeline on their son's heroics in rescuing the village from the vampires that had plagued it.

The fact that none of them apparently noticed that Gabriel was a vampire himself certainly helped.

A doctor had attended to Edeline's knee and shoulder while he had smuggled Gabriel up to their room while everyone else was out celebrating the destruction of the castle. He had then been able to sneak a tankard of blood from the butcher's shop while the butcher and his apprentices were drinking. Gabriel had drank it without protest, and then he had gone to sleep. Hoping that he would be quiet while they were out, Wolfram had left him to sleep while he cleaned out the tankard and hid it under one of the benches in the carriage.

Edeline had wanted to return the three silver crucifixes to the little boy that had given them to her, but she hadn't been able to find him anywhere, and all the villagers had insisted that there was no such child in town. Instead they had bartered two of them for clothing and warm blankets for Gabriel, while the third, the one around Gabriel's neck, they kept. The silver was worth far more than they had traded for it, but Wolfram figured that getting Gabriel out of those damned curtains from the castle was worth its weight in gold. The fact that he had also been able to extract a promise from the grateful villagers to keep quiet about them taking Gabriel made it even better.

Oh, he knew that sooner or later, someone would let it slip that Lord and Lady Cronqvist had gone to the castle and taken Gabriel Belmont home with them, but he wanted to have Gabriel safely at home first. No doubt the Brotherhood would come sniffing around once word reached them that the castle was gone. Hopefully by then, Gabriel would be resting at home, and Wolfram would be able to use his knowledge to blackmail the Brotherhood into handing over Trevor. As much as he would love to, he couldn't attack them directly, not after all the good they had done during the whole mess with the Lords of Shadow and Satan. That wouldn't stop him from threatening to do so if they threatened Gabriel or refused to hand over Trevor. Kidnapping the heir of a noble house was punishable by hanging, and Volpe, like most of the Brotherhood, didn't have the cover of a title to protect him. Wolfram might even be able to say that Volpe was the mastermind while the rest of the Brotherhood were innocent dupes. They had certainly taken good care of Gabriel when he was a child, but that was no excuse for stealing him from his cradle and lying to him.

And that led to the next question; why had they stolen Gabriel to begin with? He had been wondering about this ever since he had realized that it had been the Brotherhood that had taken his son, and now he had to wonder why they had done nothing about Gabriel's situation after his defeat of Satan. With one of their own in such distress, one would think they would have gone running to his rescue and taken him home to his son, but they had not done that. On top of that, they had kept Trevor's existence from him somehow, which made it twice that they were guilty of stealing a man's child.

Gabriel whimpered quietly in his sleep as the sun crept towards the horizon, and Wolfram sighed and got out of bed to get dressed. Perhaps due to his mental state, Gabriel slept during the night as well once he was fed and unless awakened by something, he would remain asleep until his next feeding. Keeping his son fed was a difficult job, since there were few ready sources of blood around. Butchers collected it, since it was used for cooking, so he could sometimes get it from them. He still had to be careful though, as there was no reason for a traveling lord to buy anything from a butcher's, so he had to steal it when no one was looking (while leaving a few coins in a hard to find place, so it was _exactly_ stealing...). It was dangerous and risky, but he couldn't bear the thought of Gabriel going hungry. Other times he had to go out into the wilds, hunt down an animal, and slit its throat. Once the blood was collected, he would hide the corpse in the hopes that a predator would find and eat it before humans did.

With a sigh, Wolfram slipped quietly out of the room and went downstairs to see about having basket of food made for the day's journey. They went out of their way to keep Gabriel hidden from anyone that might see him since leaving Wygol, and that included leaving the inn before the sun was up and not checking in until it was down. This was done in part to make it harder for someone to spot Gabriel as they smuggled him in and out, but it was also to lessen the chances of him being burned by the sun, which they definitely did not want people to see. As far as the people thought, all the vampires were killed by Gabriel, and they wanted to keep it that way.

The lady of the house was saddened that they had to leave so quickly, but she quickly set the cook to making a basket for them, which would be waiting for them at the door. The coins that Wolfram pressed into her hand certainly helped her with that. With that done, he went back upstairs to find Edeline awake and dressed, and sitting on the bed while she smoothed Gabriel's hair back from his forehead and hummed a lullaby to him.

Wolfram carefully gathered Gabriel up into his arms without waking him, and with Edeline acting as a lookout, he carried him out of the room and down the backstairs, out of the main house, and into the carriage house. They laid him out on one of the benches inside the carriage, and spent a moment soothing him before they closed the door and left him, each hoping that he would be quiet until they could rejoin him. Edeline then scurried back to the room while Wolfram checked in with their driver, who was already up and eating a quick breakfast. He immediately finished his meal, climbed down from the loft, and started to get the team ready, while Wolfram returned to the main house.

They had used their own money to buy themselves some clothing to replace that which was ruined in the castle, as well as a few other things one needed when traveling. They were still three days from home, and Wolfram wished it possible to go nonstop, but the horses simply weren't capable of such a feat. As it was, he planned to make sure that those horses received a nice, long vacation once they were back at the manor.

They quickly packed up their things, and went downstairs. The promised basket of food was indeed waiting on them, and they quickly paid their bill (while giving the mistress of the house a little extra "for her trouble") and scurried out the door as the sun broke over the treeline. The driver brought the carriage around, but not so far that the inside of it could easily be seen from the house. They climbed in, and not too soon either, for the sudden movement of the carriage had awoken Gabriel, and he was looking around in confusion. Edeline went to him and began to soothe him before he could make any sound, and it made Wolfram smile to see him respond to his mother's voice and touch. He quickly went back to sleep, with his head resting on her lap, and soon they were rolling down the road again, towards home.

And he had no idea what they were going to do with Gabriel once they arrived. People may believe that all the vampires were gone, but it would take only one look at Gabriel's eyes, claws, and fangs for someone to put the facts together. Seeing his aversion to sunlight would make it even more obvious. There were dungeons deep under their house that were rarely used, but he didn't like the idea of putting his son down there, especially with his mental state. Gabriel wasn't a prisoner to keep locked up, and since it upset him if they weren't with him, that wasn't the best option. Keeping him in the house with them was the best, but that meant that keeping him – and his vampirism – hidden from the household staff and the rest of the family would be impossible.

If word got out that they were harboring a vampire, it could mean the family's destruction, even if said vampire was being hailed as a hero and was God's Chosen One. Though... Wolfram frowned in thought. Maybe... they could use that to their advantage? The crucifix that caused so much pain to the castle clearly had no effect on Gabriel, so they might be able to use that as proof that he wasn't an evil, monstrous, vampire, but simply God's champion that had become a vampire whilst doing His work.

Yes, yes, that might work. Perhaps it would be better to hold a family meeting right off, announce Gabriel's return, admit that he was a vampire, and show that clearly, holy objects didn't harm him? He would also have to make it clear that Gabriel's presence would have to be kept secret – it wouldn't do for the Brotherhood to find him there. They would protect their son, even from the people that had raised him.

They would also have to admit to their staff who and what Gabriel was, but that would probably be easier than admitting it to the family. Much of the older servants (including their current driver) were there the night that Gabriel had been stolen from his cradle, and the same was true for the most senior members of the guard staff. Having their "little master" back under their watch would no doubt please them greatly, and they would be able to keep the others under wraps about it. Betraying the family could be punished by death, and they knew it.

A quiet whimper from Gabriel made Wolfram break from his thoughts and look up. Edeline murmured to him as he shifted and ran her fingers through his hair, and he quickly settled back down. A quiet growl from his then stomach let him know that he had that basket of food sitting beside him, untouched, so he dug into it and found an assortment of rolls, meats, and cheeses, as well as a bottle of wine, and a bottle of mead. He pulled a sweet roll out, handed it to Edeline, and then poured himself a glass of mead.

Edeline took a bite of the sweet roll, swallowed, and then looked down at Gabriel's sleeping face. "I am not going to hide him away, Wolfram." she said firmly. "I didn't come all this just to squirrel him away in the dungeons."

Wolfram took a sip of his mead. "I agree. I believe the best way to handle this is to be honest. Tell them what we saw in the mirror and show that holy artifacts do not hurt Gabriel. Make it clear that no one outside the family is to know about the fact that he is a vampire though. I'd rather keep his existence a secret from the rest of the world, but I doubt the Brotherhood will allow that."

Edeline's face darkened at the thought of the Brotherhood. "After everything they've done to Gabriel so far, it doesn't surprise me that they would attempt to torture him further. I just wish I knew why."

"I intend to find out. Once Gabriel is settled in at home, I intend to confront Volpe with what we know. I hope to use it into forcing him to hand Trevor over without a fight, and if I am lucky, I might get some questions answered."

"Do you really think that they'll give Trevor to you? If Gabriel never knew about him, and they took him from his mother right after birth, then they must have some plan for him too."

"I know, and I hope we can spare Trevor from sharing his father's fate, but we will see." Wolfram fished a roll for himself out of the basket. "I don't want to attack them directly, because it could go very wrong for us, but that is our grandson they have, and they left Gabriel to rot in that cursed castle, so if it comes to that..."

Edeline nodded in understanding, and they lapsed into silence as the carriage rolled down the road.

**OOOOOO**

The sun was sinking rapidly towards the horizon when they rolled up to the next stop on the road. Whomever had built these small inns had picked the perfect places for them, Wolfram thought, with them spaced just far enough apart that they could be reached after a day's ride. As planned, he and Edeline alighted from the carriage in front of the building, and their driver took it around the side to the carriage house. Gabriel they left sleeping on the bench, but he would wake as soon as the sun set, and he would be thirsty, so they would have to hurry.

They quickly checked in, and the houseboy took their things up to their room, which thankfully, was close to a rear staircase. With Edeline again acting as a lookout, Wolfram went down to the carriage house, and found Gabriel waking up and looking around with wide, frightened eyes.

"It's all right, Gabriel." he said gently as he climbed in and scooped him up into his arms. "Papa's got you." Gabriel's eyes swung over to him and stared intently at him, and Wolfram shivered slightly when he realized that he was actually staring at his neck. "Let's get you upstairs and into bed, and then I'll get you fed."

Gabriel made not a sound as he was carried into the inn and up the stairs, but he kept his eyes locked on Wolfram's neck, even as he was tucked into bed. He whined softly when Wolfram stood up and moved away, and his eyes dilated as he bared his fangs.

"I think to be safe, that you should keep away from him, Edeline." Wolfram warned as he fetched his sword and hunting knife, as well as the tankard that they used to feed Gabriel. "I'll be back as quick as I can." Edeline nodded as she settled into a chair in the corner, and Wolfram quickly left the room. He slipped down the backstairs and into the woods behind the inn. The deepening gloom made it hard for him to see, which would make hunting difficult, but he had to feed Gabriel somehow. He didn't want to think of how he would react if forced to go without too long.

Thankfully, God smiled down on him, for he was able to quickly catch two rabbits and drain their blood into the tankard. He hid the remains and then made his way back into the inn and up into their room. Gabriel was still lying in bed, while Edeline watched him from a chair in the corner, and his distressed whining stopped as soon as Wolfram walked in and offered the tankard to him. He eagerly slurped down the contents, and once he had finished, he allowed himself to be laid down, calm and quiet once more. Wolfram set the tankard aside, and then he and Edeline tucked Gabriel back in and kissed him goodnight. He smiled vaguely at them, and then he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

With their son fed and sleeping, Wolfram went down to the common room below to fetch dinner for them. He took a seat at one of the tables in a dark corner while he waited and listened to the conversation flowing around the room. A lot of it was about him – after all it was rare that such establishments were visited by nobility – but there was also talk about the upcoming growing season, the winter that had just past, and as always, there was talk about the Lords of Shadow and Gabriel's defeat of them. Toasts were raised in Gabriel's name, and it was only the fact that he didn't want to call undue attention to himself that prevented Wolfram from doing the same. Hearing talk of Gabriel's heroic deeds filled him with pride. His boy had done that! His boy had saved the world!

"I heard Bernhard Castle fell." said one of the drinkers at a nearby table.

"I heard the same," said another voice, "and I also heard that those Brotherhood types were pretty worried about it for some reason."

"Bah! They're daft!" said a third patron. "That place was cursed from the instant it was built! I say they salt the earth and never build anything there again!"

There was a general chorus of agreement from the the rest of the room. "It was a man from the Brotherhood that saved our necks though!" said the first speaker. "Last I heard of 'im he was seen following a little girl into that place, and then neither of them ever came out. Mebbie that's why the Brotherhood is so worried."

"What, you think our hero has a taste for little girls?" someone jeered.

"Or maybe it was a little girl that had a taste for older men!" laughed someone else.

Wolfram shook his head as a large platter covered with meat and vegetables was given to him, and he quickly carried it upstairs. He and Edeline ate in silence, and then they retired for the night, once again sleeping with Gabriel sandwiched protectively between them.

**OOOOOO**

Wolfram's eyes flew open when a loud banging sounded against their door. He raised his head from the pillow and blinked; had he dreamed that? Apparently not, because Edeline was stirring too, and even Gabriel was shifting around in his blankets.

The banging came again, loud and insistent, so Wolfram threw the quilt back and stood up. He pulled it over Gabriel's face so he wouldn't be seen in the still dark room, and then he padded over to the door, just as someone banged on it a third time. He was surprised that he couldn't hear anyone stirring in the rooms on either side of them; couldn't they hear that?

He pulled the door open just enough to see who was knocking and then made sure to stand between the opening and the bed to block any view of Gabriel and hoped his boy would be quiet.

"What?" he hissed. "Do you've any idea what time it was?"

The houseboy stood on the other side of the door, looking at him with the most serious expression he had ever seen on the face of a boy that age. "Lord Cronqvist, you and your family need to leave, immediately." he said quietly, yet firmly.

"What? What do you mean? Why?"

"The Brotherhood is coming. They know that you were at the castle, and they are coming."

Oh God... Wolfram looked intently at the boy's face for a moment; was this a prank? But no, the boy's bright blue eyes showed no hint of mischief or deceit. "Thank you." he said quietly as he stepped back and shut the door, and he saw the boy nod and turn to walk away as he did so.

Once the door was closed, Wolfram walked quickly back to the bed. "Edeline!" he hissed as he reached out and shook her.

She came awake slowly and blinked tiredly at him. "Wolfram?"

"Get up, get dressed, and start packing our things. We need to leave, right now."

To her credit, she got up and started moving before she asked any questions. "What's going on?"

"I've just been informed the Brotherhood is on their way. I'm going to wake our driver and help him get the horses ready. Keep Gabriel covered, and don't open the door for anyone. I'll be back soon to get him."

"Alright. Be careful, Wolfram."

"I will."

He threw his clothes and boots on, fastened his sword at his hip, (Just in case...) and slipped out the door and down the backstairs. Once he was out of the inn, he ran across the T shaped drive to the carriage house, where he found their driver asleep in the hayloft. He shook the man awake and told him to start getting the horses ready right away, that the Brotherhood was on their way. The man, not wanting to risk losing his little master again, scrambled to obey, and Wolfram followed him down the ladder to help.

They pair worked as quickly and as quietly as possible in the darkened carriage house, not wanting to risk attracting attention by lighting more than a single candle, and soon they had the team hitched to the carriage. They then walked the team and the carriage out of the carriage house and into the drive close to the staircase door. Wolfram then dashed back into the house and up the stairs.

He found Edeline dressed and standing guard just inside the door, with their bags on the floor at her feet.

"Take the bags and head down." he whispered as he moved towards the bed. "I'll get Gabriel." He didn't wait to see if she obeyed; instead he walked quickly over to the bed, pulled the top cover down, and scooped Gabriel up. Gabriel whimpered quietly, but then he nestled down and went quiet again, and Wolfram turned towards the door just in time to see Edeline leave the room with their things. He moved over to the door, took a quick peek out to make sure it was clear, and then he slipped down the hall and down the backstairs.

The sky was still completely dark, and there was only a faint sliver of a moon, so he couldn't really see the carriage until he was close to it, but he was just barely able to see Edeline's faint outline waiting inside. He climbed in, laid Gabriel down on the bench with her, and then froze for a second when the sound of distant hoof beats feel on his ears.

He cursed quietly, and then stood up to speak softly to the driver. "Pull the carriage into the trees at the end of the drive!" He then ducked inside and pulled the door shut just as the carriage began to move. Instead of turning to the right, towards the road, it turned left. It rolled off the dirt drive and into the woods at the end, and then went on for quite a distance before it stopped. With the lamps not lit, hopefully it would be far enough to prevent them from being seen from the drive or house. He then heard the driver jump down from his seat and saw him run past.

"What is he doing?" Edeline whispered, and Wolfram risked a glance out of the window to see him running back towards the carriage house. A few seconds later, he saw the faint light from within from the one candle that they had used go out, and then he heard the doors shut, followed by the sound of his running feet back towards them. He did not climb up back into his seat though; instead they heard him move around to stand in front of the horses, hopefully to keep them quiet. If they were spotted here, they wouldn't have a chance of backing the carriage out before they were surrounded.

The hoof beats came closer, and Wolfram prayed that Gabriel wouldn't have a nightmare or flashback as they pounded up the road and into the drive.

"I don't understand why Cardinal Volpe is so worried about the Cronqvists anyway." came a voice, Wolfram hunched down and held his breath. Across from him, he could faintly hear Edeline doing the same.

There came the sound of people getting down from their saddles. "He just wanted us to check on Bernhard Castle, Rolfe, you know that."

"But what for? We hear rumors that the Cronqvists are there looking around, and he sends the five of us out there to investigate. What is he worried about?"

"Perhaps he's simply concerned with something happening to them out there. We all know the history of that castle, and he has petitioned for a new compound on their land, a compound that won't happen if something happens to Wolfram Cronqvist." said a new voice.

"Once again you are the voice of reason, Eddard." said a fourth voice.

"I still think it's crazy." said the one called Rolfe. "What business is it of ours what the nobles get up to in their spare time..."

"Let's just put the horses away." Eddard said calmly. "We've been riding all day, and we've still quite a distance to go before we're at Wygol."

"I second that," said a fifth voice, "If you hate it so damned much, Rolfe, why did you join the Brotherhood to begin with?"

Rolfe didn't answer, instead they heard only quiet grumbling, accompanied by the sounds of horses walking into the carriage house for the night.

"I do wonder though," said the fifth voice.

"Oh, not you too."

"Hear me out. If he wants us to check on the Cronqvists, who are rumored to be at the castle, why did the Cardinal order us to stay out of the castle itself? Hard to check on them if we can't go where they're said to have gone."

"Who knows what that man is thinking? I'm still baffled that he sent Gabriel out on that quest alone."

"Well, Gabriel was certainly up to the task." came Eddard's voice again as they seemed to be moving towards the house.

"I have to agree though." Rolfe said quietly as they crossed the drive. "He may have done the deed on his own, but if some of us had gone with him, he might be back home and having to put up with us raising too many drinks in his name instead of lying dead somewhere. We weren't even permitted to go find his body so we can bury him."

"You know why. The Land of the Dead is too dangerous for us to go in just to retrieve a body."

"Still not right though. Poor Trevor's never going to know his father except for the stories we tell of him."

There came the sound of a door opening, and the voices became muffled as their owners moved inside, and then the door shut. Wolfram released the breath he had been holding.

"We'll stay here for a bit longer," he whispered, "To give them time to go to sleep."

"Alright." Edeline said quietly, and though he couldn't see her, Wolfram imagined that she was running her fingers through Gabriel's hair in an attempt to keep him quiet. If he cried out or screamed now...

Wolfram glanced out the carriage window and could just faintly see lights on in windows through the trees. "I hope they go to bed soon." he said to himself as he watched. Behind him, Gabriel made a soft sound of distress as he stirred.

"Shhh," Edeline whispered. "Hush, Gabriel. Go back to sleep."

Wolfram ducked back inside and knelt down on the floor beside him. "Be quiet, Gabriel. We're right here. Nothing is going to happen to you." He heard the rustling of cloth as Gabriel shifted in his quilts. "It's all right. Go back to sleep."

With a small, soft sigh, Gabriel went still, and Wolfram moved from the floor to the bench.

"I wish I knew what he was dreaming of." Edeline whispered. "Even as I know it's probably nothing that I would want to see. It's... difficult when your child is in distress, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"I know." Wolfram said quietly in agreement. "I just hope that he will come back to himself once he's safe at home. I think that thrice damned castle can be largely blamed for his current state. He was alone with that place for months; imagine the effect that had on him."

"I don't want to think of it. We came so close... If we had been just a few days later..."

"Then don't. Remember that we did find him, that we did get him out of there, and that we're not on our way home with him. We can move forward from there."

Back at the house came the sound of a door opening, and two voices were heard walking out and towards the carriage house. Wolfram and Edeline went silent again and waited.

"Why do I always have to keep coming out here with you?" grumbled one of the Brotherhood knights that they had heard just a few minutes before.

"I can't help it if my brother locked me in the cellar all night when I was little." came Eddard's voice.

"Always the voice of reason – unless it comes to dark places. Just get what you left in the damned saddle bag, and hurry up. I want to go to bed."

Wolfram wasn't sure if Gabriel recognized the voices and wanted to call out to them, or if they frightened him for some reason, but he moved too late to stop the cry that escaped his son's mouth. He clapped his hand down over Gabriel's mouth to try and prevent further noise, but it wouldn't do much good against the one he had already made.

"What in God's name was that?" came Eddard's voice.

"I don't know," said the other, "but it came from those trees over there."

Gabriel made a muffled whine and tried to turn his head away to get away from Wolfram's hand, which forced him to slip down to the floor, so he could hold his head still with his other hand.

"Shhh, be still, Gabriel." Edeline said in a voice that was so low he could barely hear her. "We need you to be quiet." Gabriel whined again and tried to turn his head, but Wolfram's hand pressing down on his forehead stopped him.

"That sounded like Gabriel's voice, didn't it?"

Wolfram stopped breathing.

"You're out of your mind. Gabriel's dead, and he lies out in the Land of the Dead, remember?"

"I swear it was him! Let's go check it out."

Footsteps began walking towards them. "I still think you're out of your mind."

The house door opened again. "Sirs?" came the houseboy's voice. "Your meal is ready."

"We'll be there in a minute."

"Sirs, your friends are already helping themselves, so hurry or you won't have much left."

"Damn it. Let's go, Eddard. I'm not skipping out on a meal just to investigate some weird sound."

"I swear that was Gabriel!"

"Gabriel is dead, Eddard, and no amount of wishing otherwise is going to bring him back! Now let's go eat and go to bed for the night. We've got another long day of sitting in the saddle ahead of us."

There was a long pause, a sigh, and then: "Fine, let's go." followed by footsteps walking back towards the inn. A few seconds later, the door shut, and faint conversation began to drift from the first floor.

Wolfram released the breath that he had been holding. "That was far too close." he whispered as he let go of Gabriel, who was sniffling, and scooped him up into his arms to comfort him as he sat back on the bench. "Shhh, I'm sorry for that Gabriel, but we didn't want them to know you're here though so we an keep you safe. Hush..." Gabriel curled close to him and hiccuped.

"I wonder why that upset him so much?" Edeline wondered.

"I'm not sure that I want to know."

They went quiet then as they waited, and after a few minutes, Gabriel calmed and went back to sleep, so Wolfram laid him down with his head on his mother's lap again, and then he moved to the window to watch the inn.

Thankfully, the knights didn't say up too long, for the lights in the common room went out after ten minutes or so, followed by the lights upstairs shortly after that. They waited for another half hour to give the men time to fall into deep sleep before he stuck his head out and called quietly for their driver to back the carriage out of the drive. He hoped that he horses wouldn't make any loud noises.

The carriage slowly rolled backwards down the drive, past the inn, and into the road, and then it reversed direction and began to move forward towards home, and it wasn't until the inn was out of sight that Wolfram allowed himself to relax a tiny bit. When they had gone at least a mile down the road without any sign that their departure was noticed, he let himself sag against he wall of the carriage and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Once things are settled," he said tiredly, "I'll have to come back here and offer that houseboy a position in our household. I don't know how he knew that they were coming, but it certainly saved us from encountering them as we left in the morning."

"I agree." Edeline said. "I'm just glad he warned us, and I'm glad that they are going in the direction opposite from us." She tucked Gabriel's blankets around him as the first streaks of predawn blue began to appear on the eastern horizon. He was safe for now.

**OOOOOO**

**A/N 2: I just had to write a scene with Gabriel getting some fatherly love after seeing a fanart of him being glared at in hatred by Leon and Richter until he left in tears. I just had to. XD**


	11. Family: 10

**10.**

Wolfram allowed himself a small sigh of relief when the carriage rolled onto their land. They were just over a day away from home, and on their own land, they had more power to bear against the Brotherhood if needed. He looked over at Gabriel, lying curled up on his side under his quilts, with his head on his mother's lap. He was awake, but his eyes were dull and unfocused, and Wolfram frowned as he thought of who exactly could be blamed for his mental state. The castle had driven him to that point, but it was Volpe that had sent him there, and Wolfram intended to do whatever he could to ruin the man before the week was out.

He glanced out the window at the cloudy sky; it had been overcast since the previous afternoon, and off and on, he thought he could smell rain. Hopefully, they would get home before -

The carriage jolted to a sudden stop, and Edeline grabbed a hold of Gabriel to stop him from falling to the floor. "What in the world?" she asked in bewilderment.

"I don't -" Wolfram began, but he was interrupted before he could finish the sentence. Yells and calls sounded from the treeline on either side of the rode, followed by the sound of running footsteps, and he saw Edeline's eyes widen in horror as she held Gabriel close to her. "Highwaymen!" He cursed and reached for his sword, but before he could touch it, the door flew open, and grasping hands grabbed a hold of Edeline and pulled her out of the carriage.

"Wolfram!"

He felt his heart stop at his wife's cry, and he jumped to his feet and leapt out of the carriage and onto the road. There was a group of five men brandishing swords and knives, and one had Edeline, while a second had their driver.

"Lookie here, boys!" sneered one of the men, obviously the leader of their little gang. "Nobles traveling without any guards. How unfortunate... for them, that is." The others laughed, and the one holding onto Edeline pulled her back against him.

"I'm going to have some fun with you." he leered. "I've never had a noble woman before."

Edeline squirmed in his embrace. "Let go of me!"

"Drop the sword, pretty boy." the leader sneered. "Unless you want to be a widower. Branon here doesn't care if they're alive or dead."

"Branon" gave him a sickly grin and pressed Edeline against him, and Wolfram could clearly see the large dagger in his hand. Wolfram sighed in defeat and dropped his sword to the ground, and one of the others strode forward and shoved him out of the way.

"Let's see what you got in here!" he said as he climbed into the carriage. "Oh, what this? You holding out on us? Why didn't you say that you -"

There was a low growl from the carriage, and the sound of it made the hair on the back of Wolfram's neck stand up.

"What the? Oh my god!"

The growl turned into a furious snarl, there was a _crunch!_, and the thief stumbled out of the carriage, hands clutched around his neck, and blood spurting from between his fingers. Everyone went still and watched in silence as he staggered a few steps away from the carriage, stumbled, and then pitched face forward to the ground. He twitched a few times, there was a gurgling sigh, and then he went still as blood soaked into the dirt around him.

"What the hell was that!" the leader shouted as he stared wide eyed at his fallen subordinate.

From behind him, Wolfram heard another growl, and he looked over his left shoulder to see Gabriel stepping out of the carriage. His ankle length wool over tunic was streaked with blood down his front, and Wolfram's eyes followed the blood smear up Gabriel's front, until he reached his face, and he shivered at what he saw.

His bloodied mouth was open wide, baring his fangs, and he was producing a sound not unlike a snake that was warning off a predator. His normally pale skin was flushed with color, and Wolfram shivered again when he realized it was that way due to the blood he had just drank, but that was not the worst part, not by far.

It was his eyes. They were staring intently at those in front of him, and there was no life in them, no recognition, no sign that there was a living, thinking being behind them. The pupils were dilated, and the tiny band of red that was visible around them was... they were _glowing_. This was not Gabriel Belmont, this was not their son. This was a vampire. This was a predator.

One who had evidently spotted his next meal.

Wolfram blinked, and Gabriel was suddenly standing on the side of the road near the one that had his mother. The man stared at Gabriel is slack jawed shock, which allowed Edeline to wiggle out of his grip and run over to her husband. Wolfram ignored his wife's fingers digging into his arm as Gabriel seized her captor by his head, wrenched it to the side, and bit deeply into his neck. There was a sickening _squelch!_ and blood spurted past Gabriel's head as he began to drink.

"What the hell is this!" the leader screamed as he watched Gabriel drop the dead, desiccated corpse to the ground. Wolfram stared at the body as it laid on the ground, dried like fruit set out for the winter, until he saw the leader move threateningly towards his son while drawing his weapon.

He pushed Edeline away from him, snatched up his own sword from where it lay on the road, and ran towards the bastard threatening his son, just as Gabriel lined up his next victim. Their driver was able to scramble away in terror as Gabriel grabbed the highwayman by the neck and dragged him over. He wrapped the man in his arms as though he was embracing a lover, and there came the _squelch!_ again as he sank his teeth in deep.

The fifth highwayman jumped in front of Wolfram, brandishing his sword, but Wolfram simply batted the blade away and stabbed him right through the chest. He yanked his sword out and was on the move before the body could hit the ground, but he was too late as the leader raised his own blade just as Gabriel dropped the remains of his chosen victim and turned to face him.

His entire face was smeared with blood, and there was streaks of it in his hair, but Wolfram ignored that as the leader plunged his blade straight into Gabriel's chest. Behind him Edeline screamed as the sword exited out Gabriel's back with a spray of blood, and Gabriel yelled in pain and staggered under the blow.

"I'll teach you to kill my people!" the leader screamed as he wrenched the blade free. Gabriel stumbled forward, teetered for a second, and then he collapsed to the ground and went still. Edeline screamed again, and Wolfram stared at his son's body, willing him to move, to get up, to do _anything_, anything but lie there as still as the grave.

"Gabriel!" Edeline screamed in horror as Wolfram continued to stare mindlessly. "Gabriel!"

**OOOOOO**

Members of the Brotherhood scrambled out of their way as Wolfram strode through the compound, with several of his best knights marching in step with him. Apprentices and squires stared with wide eyes and slack jaws, and whispers followed them about the purpose of their visit, and why did Lord Cronqvist look fit to murder someone?

Wolfram ignored that all however; he knew exactly where he was going thanks to his tour of the place 23 days earlier, and he walked up to the double doors into the dining hall and slammed them open. The sound of the oak doors slamming against the stone walls attracted everyone's attention, and heads swiveled around to stare at him and his entourage as they walked in as though they owned it.

"William Volpe!" he roared in rage. "Where are you, you child stealing bastard!" He heard gasps and expressions of outrage from the men around him, but he ignored that as Volpe, seated at a long table at the head of the room, stood up to greet him.

"Lord Cronqvist," the man said in an even tone that only grated on Wolfram's nerves. "What brings you here tonight?"

"Don't play innocent with me! You know full damned well why I am here! I found out the secrets that you were doing your best to hide, and I intend to make you pay, here, tonight!"

"I am afraid that I have no idea what you are talking about." Volpe turned to the men standing on either side of him. "If you two would escort Lord Cronqvist from the premises and bar him from coming back in?"

"Don't you lie to me!" Wolfram snapped. "Twenty-five years ago you stole my son, and now you keep my grandson away from me!" More gasps sounded from those in the room.

"I assure you, Lord Cronqvist, that Trevor Belmont is not your grandson." He gestured for his men, but Wolfram's own knights raised their weapons and shields.

"Then how did you know of whom I was speaking of?" Wolfram said as he glared at Volpe, and the dining hall went silent at the implications.

To his credit, Volpe recovered quickly from his slip up. "It's an easy assumption to make with the rumors about his father's origins swirling about."

"I saw the mirror."

Volpe froze for an instant. "The mirror? You saw...?"

"I saw everything. I watched you snatch my son from his cradle! I saw you take my grandson from his mother's arms! I heard you order your men not to go into the castle, the castle where Gabriel was hiding!"

"Gabriel Belmont is dead, Lord Cronqvist."

"Damn right he is! Dead, killed on the side of the road by a highwayman as my wife and I were trying to take him home!"

Cries of disbelief: "What!", "Gabriel survived?", "I thought he died battling Satan!" rang out around them.

"Did you not tell your people the truth, Cardinal?" Wolfram asked as he stepped forward. "Did you tell them that Gabriel did not survive his battles, so no one would run to his aid? Was there a reason you wanted him stowed away in the castle, slowly going mad, unaware that he had a young son waiting on him!"

"Impossible!" Volpe gasped as he staggered back away from his chair. "Gabriel had because a -"

"No one can live through having a sword run through their heart, Cardinal! Not even God's Chosen!"

"But the prophecy -!"

"To hell with your prophecy! What excuse could you possibly have for taking a child from his family and then telling him that that family did not want him!" The Cardinal did not answer. Instead he stumbled back from his chair and collapsed into the arms of one of his men, looking at Wolfram in horrified shock.

"You.. you went to the castle?" he stuttered as he was helped into a chair.

"I did, with my wife." Though he knew he shouldn't, Wolfram couldn't help but hope that the man's heart was on the verge of giving out. It would make things so much easier in the long run, plus it would be a fitting punishment for the one that had torn his family apart all those years ago. "We put the facts together, we realized that the descriptions of those who had attacked our house years ago matched the description of the uniform worn by Brotherhood knights. Someone even described your chosen weapon perfectly. When we heard the rumors that Gabriel Belmont was an unwanted bastard from my family, it made everything fall into place. Seeing Trevor and learning that he has the same eye color as my wife and son just made things make that much more sense. So yes, we went to the castle, upon being told that Gabriel was there. We found him there, all alone and out of his mind. We took him out, we were taking him home, and we were nearly there when we were attacked! Gabriel died when he was stabbed through his heart! My son died trying to protect the parents he had just met only days before! My son died because you set him up! You took him from his cradle! You sent him on that quest alone! You kept his son hidden from him so he wouldn't have a reason to return! And you prevented his own brothers in arms from running to his aid by lying to them! What have you to say for yourself, Cardinal!"

The man didn't seem to know what to say. "But.. but the prophecy!"

"I don't care about your damned prophecy! I came here tonight to make you answer for your crimes, and I will have what I came for! You stole my son, sent him to his death, and now you have my grandson! Trevor will be leaving here with me!"

"I need Trevor Belmont! He will have -"

"I don't care what you need! Trevor is my grandson, and he will be returning with me to his family! Am I in any way unclear, Cardinal! Try and stop me, and I will end you! I could see you hang for what you've done! The only reason I have not pushed for that is because not everyone here is guilty, and I will not see them punished when they have done nothing!" Wolfram looked around the room at the sea of shocked faces staring back at him. "You did much good last fall, and I know that some of you regret that you were unable to assist Gabriel during his travels. You have my thanks for you work, and please understand that I do not blame your for your leader's actions." He looked at one squire that was standing nearby. "I want you to fetch Trevor and bring him here immediately." He looked at one of his own knights. "Go with him; bring Trevor straight to me."

The squire looked to Volpe for instructions, but the old man was slumped down in his chair, staring sightlessly at the table in front of him. The boy scampered out of the room then, with Wolfram's man following him, and Wolfram stood calmly in the middle of the dining hall as he waited, ignoring the conversation around him. He actually pitied some of the men there; having the foundations of one's world shaken so hard was not a pleasant experience. Even if they didn't believe what he had said, no doubt it would have them questioning things.

Thankfully he didn't have to wait long, for only a few minutes had passed when he heard a door opening, followed by footsteps. He looked to his left to see the nurse walking into the room, carrying a sleeping toddler in her arms, while Wolfram's knight walked behind her. She took looked towards Volpe for instructions, but again, he didn't say anything.

"I'll take that." Wolfram said evenly, and his knight gave the woman a nudge from behind. She scurried over to him, and to her credit, she only hesitated a moment before she held Trevor out to him. He accepted the sleeping child into his arms and looked down at the tiny face to make sure it was the right child. He didn't trust them not to try passing off another child as Trevor after everything else they had pulled.

"My men and I will be leaving now." he said in a quieter tone, not wanting to disturb his grandson. "Leave my family alone, Volpe, or I will make good on my threat." With that, he turned, and, flanked by his knights, strode out of the dining hall, cradling Trevor in his arms.

No one bothered them as they walked out of the compound, and Wolfram climbed into his waiting carriage without a word. He settled down on the bench with Trevor in his arms as the carriage jolted and began to move, and only then did he allow the tears to start rolling down his face.

**OOOOOO**

It was a day and a half long journey back home, and thankfully it went smoothly, all things considered.

Trevor woke up early the next morning as they were rolling past newly planted fields with only a few hours left to go until they reached the manor. He blinked open his soft green eyes and looked up at Wolfram in confusion.

"Hello, Trevor." Wolfram said softly. "Do you remember me? I'm your grandpapa."

"Gampapa?"

Wolfram smiled. "Close enough." He gently brushed the child's sleep tousled hair out of his face. "You're going to live with me and your grandmother now."

"Gam-ma."

He laughed quietly. "That's right."

"Holly?"

Holly must be the nurse." No, Trevor. Holly had to stay behind."

Trevor looked about the inside of the carriage. "Holly!" he yelled, and his voice sounded quite loud in the small space.

"Holly is not here, Trevor."

Trevor looked up at him with a trembling chin. "No Holly?"

"No Holly, Trevor. I'm sorry."

Trevor's chin trembled again, and a few tears gathered in his eyes as he reached up. "Up." he said softly. Wolfram smiled faintly as he lifted the child up and felt a tiny pair of arms reach around his neck. Trevor's warm weight settled against his chest as the boy began to cry, and Wolfram rocked him and murmured to him.

"Things are going to be much better for you." he said gently as Trevor sobbed into his shoulder. "You'll have me, your grandmother, and so many cousins that you won't know what to do with them all. You'll have an entire family to call your own. And guess what, your papa will be there too."

Trevor raised his head and looked at him with red, puffy eyes. "Papa?"

"Yes, your papa. I'm sure he'll be very happy to meet you." He used his thumb to gently wipe a tear from the boy's cheek. "Now are you ready for breakfast? I'm sure I have something for that tiny stomach of yours in here somewhere."

Trevor rubbed at his swollen eyes as Wolfram stood up and reached for a basket that their cooks had packed for him. He quickly fished out a roll for Trevor to nibble on, and soon the tears were gone as he happily munched away. Wolfram couldn't help but smile at the child sitting on his lap. He had his son, and now he had his grandson, and he held the boy close as the carriage rolled down the road towards home.

**OOOOOO**

A few hours later found Wolfram walking the halls of his own home, headed straight for his and Edeline's rooms. Trevor was sleeping in his arms again, and many people smiled at the sight as he passed. It was already known that Trevor was his and Edeline's grandson, so he didn't have to deal with any questions as he walked up to those familiar double doors. Instead of walking through them, however, he walked past them, and down to the next door, one that he had avoided during the previous 25 years.

After his abduction, Gabriel's nursery had simply been closed off, and neither Wolfram nor Edeline had ever set foot in it again. With his return however, it had been opened back up, cleaned out, and set up for temporary use. By all rights, as a grown man, Gabriel should have his own suite of rooms, but with his fragile mental state, they wanted him close to them to better look after him.

The two guards stationed at the door opened it for him, and he walked into the darkened room with Trevor as the door shut behind him. The broken remains of the old furniture had been thrown out, while Gabriel's cradle had been put aside for possible future use. Instead there was only a single regular bed against the right wall, a small table with a lamp, and two chairs. Edeline was in one of those chairs, watching Gabriel sleep by the soft glow of the lamp, and she looked up at him as he walked in.

"Did it work?" she asked quietly.

Wolfram nodded as he sat down in the other chair, and he smiled when Edeline eagerly held her arms out. He handed Trevor over to her and watched as she cradled him and cooed to him. "It worked." he said after a minute, which prompted her to look up at him. "Though I'm having a hard time believing how easy it was. Volpe is convinced that Gabriel died when that highwayman ran a sword through his heart, and the rest of the Brotherhood didn't seem too happy about being lied to by him either. Hopefully it will buy us some time. Volpe kept mentioning a prophecy, and he insisted that he needed Trevor for something, so I doubt he'll just give up though."

"Did he say for what?"

"No, I didn't give him a chance. I really didn't care about what he had to say. I just wanted to get Trevor and go home."

Edeline looked down at the toddler in her arms and smiled again. "He's here now. He's ours, and no one is going to take him from us."

"Why don't you get things sorted for him then? He needs a bath and a change of clothes, and I'm sure he'll be hungry when he wakes up. We can announce him to the rest of the house later. I'll sit with Gabriel while you're gone." Edeline smiled and nodded, and then she stood up from her chair, leaned forward to kiss Wolfram on the cheek, and then she walked out of the room with Trevor in her arms.

Wolfram leaned back and stretched, and the wood of the chair creaked as he moved. He then slumped down and looked over at his sleeping son. Gabriel was sleeping deeply under the quilt, curled up on his right side, with his hair splayed out across the pillow. His left hand with its long black claws was poking out from under the quilt, so Wolfram quietly leaned forward and tucked them under, and the touch caused Gabriel to shift and mumble something before he went still again. It was a relief to see him show signs of life after what had happened four days previous.

_Gabriel didn't move, even as his mother ran to him, and the leader of the highwaymen turned to face them._

"_I'm sorry. Did he mean something to you?" he sneered. "That's what happens to those that attack my men!" He brandished his sword again and grabbed Edeline as she tried to run past him to reach Gabriel. "Now to take care of you."_

_Wolfram stared, too horrified to move and prevent this... monster from killing his wife, and he thought for one crazy moment that at least they would all be together on the other side soon. Hopefully, Trevor wouldn't walk down the same path that his father had been forced onto and..._

_With a growl, Gabriel moved. The leader dropped his sword and spun around to face him as Gabriel pushed himself up and got to his feet. Edeline wrenched herself out of her grip and ran back to Wolfram as Gabriel stared at the man that had attacked him with glowing red eyes. _

"_What in hell's name!" the leader screamed, and he raised his sword again, but the blade was ripped from his hands before he could use it. Gabriel tossed the blade aside as he stared at his target, and Wolfram found his eyes drawn to the front of his tunic, which was now completely soaked in blood, as he lunged forward with claws outstretched. _

_The man didn't even have time to scream. _

_The claws of Gabriel's left hand dug into the side of his neck, and blood sprayed out through the holes created. His other hand dug into his chest, and then ripped out with another spray of blood. The body collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from the gaping wound, leaving Gabriel standing there, with a still beating heart in his hand. _

_Wolfram watched as the heart slowed and stilled in his hand, and then Gabriel dropped it as he began to sway on his feet. To his shame, he hesitated for a moment before he rushed forward and caught Gabriel in his arms as he collapsed forward again. _

"_Gabriel!" he called as he shook him. "Gabriel, answer me!"_

_Gabriel's eyes fluttered open for a brief moment, and he let out a low moan before he slumped down in Wolfram's arms. Had he fainted? How could he tell? Without thinking, he reached for a pulse, and to his surprise, he found one, a slow, sluggish one, but still a heartbeat. He let out a little sigh at that; he had just fainted. _

"_My lord?" came a trembling voice from behind him, and Wolfram looked over his shoulder to see their driver standing there with wide eyes._

"_Not a word of this, to anyone." Wolfram ordered. "This will stay between us; no one else is to know. Understood?"_

_The man nodded quickly, as did Edeline. Good. "Edeline, come here." She gave him a shaky not and obeyed. He stood up, pulling Gabriel up with him, and handed him over to her. "Take him back into the carriage and get him cleaned up. I have to.. clean up the mess out here." Edeline flinched, and she nearly dropped Gabriel doing so. "Edeline." he told her firmly. "He killed those men protecting himself and us. He went for the one threatening you as soon as he could. Think about that." She nodded again, and she turned and began to walk Gabriel, calm and docile once more, back to the carriage._

Wolfram and their driver had dragged the bodies as deep into the woods aside the road as they could and hidden them under piles of leaves and fallen branches. It wasn't perfect, but digging graves would be pointless; animals would have them dug out within hours anyway. They had also hidden Gabriel's bloodied clothing once Edeline had him out of it. They had returned to the carriage to find Gabriel dressed in one of his father's linen under tunics, wrapped in his quilts, and sleeping soundly once more. They had returned home as fast as the horses could go, and once they had arrived, he had sent Edeline inside with instructions to send the head of their knights out to the carriage house.

_Wolfram rode the carriage into the privacy of the carriage house, with Gabriel lying on the bench beside him. He wasn't asleep, which would make things easier. Once the carriage was parked, the driver informed him that Sir Pershan was waiting, and Wolfram waved for him to join him inside the carriage. _

_John Pershan was a battle grizzled old soldier that had been with the Cronqvists since he was a boy, and he had risen through the ranks quickly due to his skill and shrewd sense of strategy. Now in his late 60's, he wore the marks of his rough and tumble life with pride, and he had acted as a friend as well as an older brother of sorts to Wolfram when the latter was a boy himself. _

_Now to see if that friendship would still hold strong after what he was about to reveal. _

"_Come in, John." Wolfram said as he gently ran his fingers over Gabriel's hair to try and keep him calm. _

"_What's going on, Wolfram?" John asked as he sat down on the opposite bench. When around others, it was always "Sir Pershan" and "Lord Cronqvist", but that was not the case when it was just the two of them. They had been friends too long for that._

"_I'm sure you've heard of Gabriel Belmont?" Wolfram replied as he gestured towards the person in question. _

_John's eyes immediately moved from Wolfram's face to look upon Gabriel. "I was told that he died."_

_Wolfram snorted in derision. "That's what Cardinal Volpe wants people to believe. No, he lived, and took refuge in Bernhard Castle."_

_John's eyes swung back up to Wolfram. "You went there? Alone? Damn it, Wolfram, you know the rumors about that place!"_

"_Rumors that are very true, Edeline and I found out, but that's not important right now. We found Gabriel alive inside, and we were not going to leave him there."_

"_So is it true then? Gabriel is our little master?"_

_Wolfram said nothing in reply. Instead he only coaxed Gabriel into sitting up so John could see them sitting side by side. Even with much of the color from his recent feeding already fading from his skin, his red eyes, and his hair which looked black in low light, the resemblance between the two of them was obvious. _

_John gave a low whistle. "So it is true." He gave Gabriel another look. "His eyes are red."_

_Wolfram gently, so not to upset him, peeled Gabriel's upper lip back, so his fangs were clearly visible, which caused John's eyes to widen slightly._

"_I see now why you wanted to meet me out here." he said after a moment. "I thought they were all dead."_

"_As far as I can tell, he's the only one left. If there are others, we did not see them. I do know how he came to be like this, but here is the interesting part." He pulled the silver crucifix out from under Gabriel's neck, which prompted another widening of John's eyes. _

"_So it looks as though the rumors of him being God's Chosen are also true." he said calmly. _

"_Indeed. Edeline and I have no intention of hiding him." he said and put an arm around Gabriel's shoulders when the latter leaned against him. "He's been in this state since we left the castle, though it's clear to me what he lived through there drove him mad. He has moments where he cries and screams at things only he can see, and he does have nightmares. For that reason, he needs his parents close to him, so we're not stashing him down in the dungeons."_

"_What do you need from me?"_

"_I need you and your men to move everyone into the hall for a family meeting. I mean everyone, even the servants. I don't care what they are doing, I want them in that hall within an hour."_

"_What do you intend to do?"_

"_We can't hide what Gabriel has become, so I intend to be truthful. Tell them that yes, he's a vampire, but he got that way by doing His work, and that as long as he's kept fed, he's docile." No need to mention what he had done to those highwaymen, at least not now. Gabriel had been threatened by those men, but Wolfram knew that excuse wouldn't work for some. _

"_Are you sure it will work?"_

"_What other choice do I have? Gabriel will not recover from what he suffered if he's kept locked away under the house."_

"_You're not telling me everything."_

"_You're right, I'm not, but I will later. You, at least, need to know everything that Edeline and I saw while we were at that God forsaken place, but for now I want to get Gabriel inside and get him settled in before the Brotherhood realizes he's no longer there."_

_John nodded once. "I'll get my men right on it. Are you going to stay out here until everyone is ready?"_

"_I am. I'm not taking Gabriel into the house until everyone is out of the way."_

"_I'll get my second on to moving everyone into the hall, and then I'll come back out here to make sure you're not disturbed."_

"_I appreciate it, John."_

"_You can pay me back by telling me a damn good story later. I'm sure it will be interesting."_

"_Oh it will be."_

_With that, John climbed out of the carriage and shut the door behind him, leaving Wolfram alone with Gabriel._

Gabriel mumbled something in his sleep again, and Wolfram reached out and raked his fingers gently through his hair to soothe him.

"Go back to sleep, Gabriel." he whispered. "I'm here with you."

Gabriel buried his face in his pillow, and his left head came out from under the quilt and seized a hold of Wolfram's as he went to pull it away. Even in sleep, his grip was surprisingly strong, and he held his father's hand close to him as he settled back down. Wolfram smiled faintly at the sight and feel of Gabriel holding onto him.

_Announcing Gabriel to the rest of the house didn't seem like such a good idea all of a sudden, Wolfram thought as he carried his son through the empty halls. He still believed that it was the best option for Gabriel's sake, but he knew he was about to unleash a storm upon them, and he was no longer certain that they would survive it. Some relatives, the ones that had quietly celebrated when Gabriel had vanished from his cradle, would no doubt be furious. _

_They quickly bathed him, combed his hair, and dressed him as befitting his new station. It wouldn't do for him to meet his family wearing just an under tunic. Gabriel was calm and passive through it all, but when they approached the hall, the sounds of so many voices murmuring to each other seemed to bother him. He grabbed onto Wolfram with both hands and whimpered quietly as he squeezed his eyes shut. _

"_These aren't the voices that tormented you, Gabriel." Wolfram said gently, grateful that he hadn't sunk his claws in. "These people are family. They aren't going to hurt you." Not all of them anyway, he added silently. Gabriel turned his head and hid his face in Wolfram's hair, and he had to stand there for a few minutes soothing him before they could continue. _

"_Pershan." Wolfram ordered as they stopped in front of the double doors that led into the hall. "If things go wrong, grab Gabriel and get him out of here. That is an order."_

"_Yes, my lord. Are you ready?"_

_Wolfram looked at Edeline, who nodded, and then he turned back to look at John. "Let's get it over with."_

_John opened the doors, and then he preceded them into the hall, with one of his men walking behind them. A wave of silence swept through the room, starting from the back by the doors and moving forward, as Wolfram and Edeline walked up the isle, with Gabriel shuffling along between them. A few seconds later, the whispers started. _

"_Who is that?"_

"_I've never seen him before." _

"_He looks like Wolfram, doesn't he?"_

"_Could that be...?"_

"_But he's dead!"_

"_They never found a body, and there was no ransom."_

_Wolfram ignored the whispers as he walked up to the dais at the far end of the room, and he kept one arm around Gabriel's trembling shoulders as they went. He could hear Edeline whispering something to him, and she kept one arm around his waist as they climbed up the few steps to stand on the dais They turned to face the crowd, and he hoped that all the stares wouldn't upset Gabriel; they needed him to stay calm. _

_The room went silent again, though there was a whispered "Oh my god!" from someone in the back. _

"_I'm sure you're all aware of the story of Gabriel Belmont." he said, and there was a collective nod from everyone, family and staff alike. "This is him standing here beside me, and I'm sure you've noticed by now the resemblance between him and me. Weeks ago, I had a meeting with the staff that were here the night that my son was stolen from us, and they all described the same things about the men that invaded the house that day, and I realized after meeting Cardinal Volpe from the Brotherhood of Light just who had taken Mathias all those years ago."_

"_Did you confront them?" came a angry voice from his nephew Adelar, who was the oldest son of Wolfram's younger brother, Cordrin. He was also the next to inherit if Wolfram died without an heir. _

"_Not yet." _

"_Why in the hell not? If they had stolen my son, I would have torn their compound down around their heads! They all would have hung!"_

"_And you would have brought the family down with you!" Wolfram snapped, and he lowered his voice as Gabriel flinched beside him. "The Brotherhood saved our lives last fall, and everyone knows it. Attacking them is a fool's errand that would have had everyone else out for our blood. They will be dealt with, but not now. I had more important things to deal with first._

"_Apparently, there are rumors swirling on Lord Driscoll's land that Gabriel was an unwanted bastard child of this family. You can imagine after hearing that, and after learning that it was likely the Brotherhood that had taken my son, that I had to investigate. In the guise of visiting their compound, Lady Cronqvist and I searched for Gabriel there, but Cardinal Volpe told us that he had died." He paused as every eye in the room looked over at Gabriel. "As you can see, that is obviously not true."_

_What followed was an edited tale of of their race to rescue Gabriel before the Brotherhood caught onto them. He mentioned the mirror, but he did not tell them of Gabriel's mind controlled murder of that young girl and of his own wife. He did mention that Gabriel had indeed destroyed the Lords of Shadow and then had sent Satan back to Hell. He also told of Gabriel's son, currently in the custody of the Brotherhood, though he intended to correct that soon. He also confirmed that the rumors about Bernhard Castle were very true, but said that it had collapsed in on itself not long after their escape. He did not mention the voices. _

"_As you can clearly see, Gabriel and I resemble each other a great deal, so it is safe to say that Gabriel Belmont and Mathias Cronqvist are one and the same. Gabriel will be remaining here with his family while he recovers from his ordeal, and I want to make things clear. No one is to bother him. Do not question him, do not harass him. Leave him in peace so he can heal. My wife and I will be caring for him until he his able to do so for himself."_

_Trust Adelar to stir up trouble again. "Why are his eyes red?"_

_This is it, Wolfram thought. "Because he is a vampire." he said, and his words rang out clearly in the suddenly silent room. He pulled Gabriel closer to him and waited for the explosion. _

"_What!"_

"_Are you out of your mind!"_

"_You brought a vampire into our house!"_

"_He's going to kill us all!"_

"_He's cursed!"_

"_He's going to bring a plague down on us!"_

_Cordrin leapt up from his chair, and he ran down the isle towards them, brandishing a cross. Since it wasn't a weapon, Wolfram nodded for John to stand down, and instead he only held Gabriel tight as Cordrin ran up the steps and threw the cross in Gabriel's face. _

_Gabriel cried out in surprise as the metal was pressed against his cheek, but he did not try to get away, and he showed no signs that it was hurting him in any way. Cordrin stumbled back in shock, and the entire room gasped to see no mark on Gabriel's face. Edeline reached over and pulled the silver crucifix out of Gabriel's tunic so it was in plain sight, and everyone seemed to stare at it._

"_Gabriel became a vampire while doing His work." Wolfram said calmly as Cordrin stumbled down the steps and fell into a seat. "Do you really think that a human could defeat Satan?" It wasn't _quite_ the truth, but Wolfram had no intention of mentioning the demon that Gabriel had fought, ever. "My son became a vampire to save all of us, to fulfill the mission that the Lord had set out for him, and instead of being grateful, you attack him!" He glared down at Cordrin, who was still staring at Gabriel in disbelief. _

_The family priest, a middle aged man who went by Father Caleb, stood and approached the dais. Wolfram waved him up, and he walked up to stand in front of Gabriel, who looked back at him with dull eyes. He whispered something to him, a blessing apparently, because he then made the sign of the cross over him. _

"_Welcome home, God's Chosen." he said, and then he stepped down off the dais. _

_Of course, Adelar wasn't happy with that. "How will you feed him? Or do you expect us to line up and bare our necks for him?"_

"_Gabriel will be fed from the butcher's. If you are so frightened of him, Adelar, just avoid him. If you antagonist him until he bites you, it will be you I hold responsible, not him." He raked his gaze across the rest of the room. "That goes for the rest of you too. Leave Gabriel alone, let him rest, let him heal. It's the best way to thank the one that saved all of our souls. Furthermore, no one is to mention his presence here to anyone. I don't want to hear any whispers about him being here, and I most certainly do not want to hear anything about us having a vampire in our midst." He looked across everyone with a steely look. "Anyone that disobey's this will be... dealt with... harshly. Am I clear?"_

_There were nods from all corners, even from Cordrin and Adelar, and Wolfram nodded curtly in satisfaction. He then walked Gabriel down the dais and out of the room. _

That had been four days ago, and to his pleasant surprise, the family and servants had taken Gabriel's presence fairly easily. There were some grumblings here and there, with the loudest being from Cordrin and Adelar, but they never said anything to Wolfram or Edeline directly about it, and they avoided Gabriel completely. Still to be on the safe side, Wolfram had ordered John to pick four of his best men and have them guard Gabriel wherever he was at around the clock on a rotating schedule. If he was in bed, they stood guard outside his door. If he was with Wolfram or his mother, they stood guard nearby. Gabriel was to never be without his protection, though the necessity of it saddened Wolfram a great deal. He rescued his son from those that had taken him, and now he had to protect him from his own family.

Behind him, the door quietly opened, and Edeline came in, carrying Trevor in her arms again. The child was awake and looking around with curious green eyes, and he had been bathed and dressed in clean clothes.

"Gampapa," he said with a smile when he saw Wolfram sitting there, and Wolfram returned the smile as Edeline sat down in the other chair with Trevor on her lap. The child looked at her. "Gam-ma"

"Oh little one." Edeline said with an amused smile, and then she looked up at Wolfram. "Do you want to introduce them tonight?"

"Perhaps, if Gabriel wakes up and if he's not upset. I don't want him meeting his son while he's agitated"

Trevor pointed to Gabriel. "Who dat?"

Wolfram shook his head with a sigh, and since he was closer to Gabriel, he held his hands out to Trevor and pulled the child out of Edeline's arm and onto his lap. He then reached and softly ran his hands down Gabriel's hair.

"Trevor," he said gently. "This is your papa."

Trevor looked up at him. "Papa?" he asked in puzzlement, and Wolfram realized that he likely had no idea what that word meant.

"Yes, your papa."

Trevor looked over at Gabriel, who had stirred at the touch against his hair. "Papa..." He clapped his hands together in glee at the new word. "Papa!"

Gabriel shifted in bed, and his eyes cracked open ever so slightly, as Trevor wiggled to be put down. Wolfram let go of him, and he toddled over to the bed and climbed up on it. Edeline reached out to grab him, but Wolfram held out his hand to stop her.

"Let's see what he does first." he said, and Edeline looked at him, unsure. "Any sign of aggression and I'll grab him." She nodded hesitantly and leaned back in her chair, but her eyes never left Gabriel as he began to wake up.


	12. Family: 11

**A/N: I know I'm terrible, making you wait so long for such a short chapter, but this thing did not want to move. Hopefully the next one will come to me faster.**

**11.**

There were more voices.

Gabriel shivered as so many new voices fell upon his ears. Some were quiet, some were loud, some spoke gently to him, while others yelled and cursed at him. He shivered again; at least those two nice voices were still there, and when he heard them, the other voices stopped.

"Papa!" came a small voice from nearby, followed by the feel of something patting his face. "Papa!"

He scooted away from the voice and the thing touching him. Papa? Why would a voice call him that? He whined as the thing touching him moved closer. "Papa!" What was this? What was happening?

"Go away." he mumbled as he scooted as far away as he could before he was stopped by something behind him. The touches to his face didn't stop, and the growl slipped out before he could think. Immediately, the touches stopped, and one of the nice voices came then.

"It's all right, Gabriel. Trevor isn't here to hurt you."

He hid his face in the soft thing under his head. He didn't understand. Who or what was Trevor?

"We'll try some other time." came the other nice voice, followed by a hand on his shoulder. "Go back to sleep, Gabriel. You're at home. You're safe."

Home? He didn't have a home anymore.

**OOOOOO**

Edeline tried not to let her disappointment show as Wolfram pulled Trevor away from Gabriel. "I think it's too soon." he said softly. "We'll try some other time, when Gabriel is awake." He looked over her shoulder at the curtain covered windows, and she saw small slivers of red sunlight fall across his face. "It is nearly dinner time, and I have to announce Trevor. Are you going to stay here with Gabriel?"

She nodded. "I know he has protection, but I don't feel at ease leaving him alone without us just yet."

"I understand. I'll have a meal sent up for you when it's time for his feeding."

"What are we going to do with Trevor? You know he's in just as much danger as Gabriel is."

Wolfram frowned as he went to stand up. "I'll keep him with me for now." he said as he rose from the chair. "He can sleep with us tonight, and we'll figure out the rest tomorrow."

She nodded, and he walked out of the room without another word, carrying Trevor with him. Once the door had closed behind him, she moved over to the chair he had vacated, dragged it closer to Gabriel's bed, and sat down. He had curled up into a ball under the quilt, with his back pressed against the wall and his face buried in his pillow. She carefully reached out, and placed her hands on his back and left shoulder respectively and waited a minute to see if it would upset him.

"It's just me, Gabriel." she whispered. "Let's get you away from that wall." He whimpered quietly but made no other protest as she gently tugged him over. "There," she said once she had him lying in the middle of the mattress again. "I'm sure that feels much more comfortable." She raked his hair out of his face, and he peeked his eyes open at her. "Good evening." she said with a small smile. "How do you feel?"

He blinked at her, and then with a soft sigh, he pushed himself to sit up on the bed and looked at her.

She reached out to touch his cheek, but he turned his head away. "Gabriel?" He mumbled something that she couldn't catch, so she leaned in closer to hear. "What is it?" He turned away again. "Tell Mama what's wrong, Gabriel." He covered his ears with his hands and shook his head. "Do you hear something?"

He shook his head again and whined. "Go away." he whispered. "Voices..."

She couldn't hear anything, but then... she didn't know how good a vampire's hearing was. She moved from the chair to sit on the bed beside him. "The voices here belong to family, Gabriel, your family. No one here wants to hurt you." Except for maybe your uncle and cousin, she added silently, but she wasn't going to tell him that. She and Wolfram would protect him from any of their plots.

He dropped his hands from his ears, wrapped his arms around himself, and shivered as he squeezed his eyes shut. She reached out to touch him again, and this time he let her. She gently ran her fingers down his cheek and smiled when he leaned into the touch.

"That's right, Gabriel. Mama's not going to hurt you."

He grabbed her hand in both of his and held it against his face. "Warm." he said quietly.

"Are you cold? Let me fix that." She gently tugged her hand out of his, and then she grabbed his quilt and draped it over his shoulders. "Is that better?"

He snuggled down into it and smiled faintly. "Warm."

She smiled again. "Yes, you're warm now." She reached out to him again, and he leaned into her before she could even touch him. She laughed quietly and allowed him to lean against her with his head lying on her chest. She didn't think it could be all that comfortable, since he was a head taller than her, but he didn't seem to mind as she put one arm around his blanket covered shoulders and ran the fingers of her other hand through his hair.

He made a quiet "Mmmmmm..." of contentment, and she smiled to hear it.

_I'm holding my son! _The thought ran through her mind as her heart swelled with joy._ I'm really holding him! He's here in my arms!_

There was a knock at the door, and Gabriel jumped slightly. "It's all right, Gabriel. That's likely our supper."

The knock came again. "My lady?"

"Just a moment!" She carefully coaxed Gabriel into sitting up, and then she got up to answer the door.

A servant was on the older side, carrying a supper tray for her, as well as Gabriel's evening drink. She took the tray and the blood into the room as the guard shut the door behind her, and she turned around and nearly dropped it when she found Gabriel standing right in front of her.

"Oh Gabriel, don't sneak up on me like that!" she scolded him as she stepped around him to walk over to the table. "Now come over here; it's time for supper." He quietly walked over, and she realized then that his feet weren't making any sound against the wooden floor. She shivered slightly. "Sit down." He looked at her and blinked in apparent confusion.

She sat the tray down and turned to face him. Being careful to to act in any way threatening, she took him by the arm, led him over to the chair, and gently pushed him down into it. His killing of the highwaymen had made it clear that, regardless of his mental state, he was still a dangerous predator and not one to be angered. He smiled vaguely at her and sat, and she released the breath that she only then realized that she had been holding.

His killing of the highwaymen had also made them believe that they hadn't been feeding him enough. He had drained two of them completely, so they decided to feed him twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, to be on the safe side. Thankfully the slaughtering of livestock to feed their large household was done on a daily basis, so blood was easy to come by.

As always she had to hold the tankard for him as he drank, and once he was done, she set it aside and used a handkerchief to wipe a drop off of the corner of his mouth. "Do you want to go back to bed now?" she asked, and he looked at her and blinked again. "Apparently not."

Leaving him in the opposite chair, she sat down in the other and tucked in to her own meal, but she kept one eye on Gabriel as she ate. He did not move, nor did he make any sound. Instead he only watched her through unfocused eyes as she ate. They would have to have a couch or something similar put in the room, she thought, because it would be nice to sit beside him on something other than the bed.

She pushed her empty plate away and glanced up at the tiny gap visible between the heavy curtain and the window. The sun was completely down, and the household would soon be settling down for the night. She stood up and walked over to Gabriel.

"Time to go back to bed, Gabriel." she told him as she laid her hands on his shoulders. "Stand up." He slowly rose to his feet, and she guided him over to the bed and sat him down. It took a bit of work to get him lying down again, but soon he was tucked under the quilt, with his head on the pillow and his eyes closed. She brushed his hair out of his face and kissed him on the cheek. He mumbled something as he settled down, and she sat with him until she was certain that he was asleep, and then she forced herself to get up and leave the room. She stepped out into the corridor and quietly closed the door, and the two guards nodded respectfully at her. She gave them a faint smile, sighed, and then walked the short distance to the bedroom that she shared with Wolfram.

She found her husband seated in one of the comfortable armchairs by the large crackling fireplace, reading a missive of some kind. Trevor was asleep in the middle of their bed, and the room was dark aside from the light coming from the fire.

"Interesting reading?" she asked quietly as she walked towards him and sat down in the chair opposite him.

He looked up at her. "Oh, this? John's been doing some listening around for me, in case any rumors start swirling about that we need to know about." He looked back down at the missive. "As we expected, talk of what happened when I took Trevor from the Brotherhood is going around, and the fact that Volpe did not in any way deny my accusation of him stealing our son has not gone unnoticed."

"So.. people believe us then? They don't think we just stole Gabriel's son to attract attention onto ourselves?"

"So it would seem, but I suppose we'll see as more time passes. Opinion could always turn against us."

"No rumors of Gabriel's presence yet?"

"None, so far people are keeping quiet about him."

"How long do you think it will last?"

"I don't know. Hopefully long enough for him to come back to himself at least." He looked up at her when she sighed. "Edeline?"

"I just..." She shook her head slightly. "I wonder if that will ever happen. We may never get him back, Wolfram. He may stay like this, and we aren't getting any younger. Who will take care of him once we are gone? What about Trevor? You know what Adelar and Cordrin will do to them."

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "I know. I share your fears, but there is nothing we can do but hope that God won't abandon His chosen now."

"I hope that will be enough."

Wolfram nodded silently, and then he stood up and threw the missive into the fire. "Let's go to bed. We can worry about tomorrow when it gets here."

She nodded faintly and stood up from the chair. They readied for bed in comfortable silence, and Trevor didn't stir when they laid down on other side of him. Like she had with his father, Edeline brushed his hair out of his face and kissed him on the cheek. He sleepily rubbed at the spot and then snuggled in close.

"Goodnight, Edeline." Wolfram said as he settled down on Trevor's other side.

"Goodnight,"

**OOOOOO**

A scream ripped through the air, and Edeline jumped upright in bed, wide eyed and shivering at the sound. Next to her Trevor began to cry as Wolfram sat up. They looked at each other, and Edeline reached over to Trevor to comfort him when another scream sounded from the room next to theirs.

"Gabriel!" She threw the covers back, leapt out of bed and ran for the door. She could hear her husband right behind her as she ran out into the hallway and down the short distance to Gabriel's room. One of his guards was still standing outside the door, and a dozen panicked thoughts ran through her mind at the absence of the other. Had someone attacked Gabriel? Was he hurt? Was someone else in the room with him? Was he ill? Had the second guard attacked him? Had he...?

She ran through the open door and found the second guard inside, checking the windows for any sign of an intruder. Gabriel was on his bed, pressed against the wall with his eyes squeezed shut, screaming.

"Gabriel!" she ran to him and held her arms out to gather him up, but when she touched him, one of his hands shot out, and she felt one of his claws tear a deep gash in the base of her neck. She stumbled back from him and pressed her hand over the wound. Blood trickled out from under her fingers.

"My lady!" the guard said in alarm.

She held out her other hand to stop him. "I'm fine. I just startled him. Go make sure no one else comes in here.

"Are you sure, my lady?"

"Yes," came Wolfram's voice from behind her. "Close the door behind you."

She heard the guard's footsteps moving towards the door as Wolfram walked up to stand behind her. "This is deep, Edeline. It'll need stitches."

The door closed behind the guard, and she waved Wolfram's concern off. "I'm fine. Let's get Gabriel calmed down first."

His hands squeezed her shoulders for a brief moment, and then they let go. "Alright. Let me approach him first, since you're bleeding. He might try to bite you if he smells blood."

She didn't want to stay back. Her baby was screaming, and he needed his mother, but.. Wolfram had a point, so she nodded reluctantly and stepped back. She watched as Wolfram approached the bed and reached out to Gabriel, who had curled up on a ball, as though he was trying to hide from something.

Wolfram sat down beside him, reached out, and gently placed on hand on his arm. "Gabriel?" He gave him a gentle shake. "Gabriel, wake up." Gabriel shuddered and hid his face. "Gabriel?" Wolfram sat down beside him, and Gabriel didn't protest as he was slowly tugged out of his protective ball to lie with his head on his father's lap.

"Open your eyes, Gabriel. No one is here to hurt you."

Gabriel made a whine that turned into a loud sob, and his body shook with it as tears poured freely from his eyes, which were squeezed shut. Edeline couldn't watch anymore. She crossed the distance to the bed in a few quick steps and knelt down beside her crying son.

"Edeline!" Wolfram hissed, but she ignored him. Gabriel needed them both, the risk be damned. She reached out with her clean hand and ran her fingers down Gabriel's cheek.

"Gabriel." She called his name just loud enough to be heard over his cries. "We're here, Gabriel. You're at home with us; the castle is long gone." He opened his eyes, but they did not focus on her. Instead they focused on a point behind her, and he went silent for a brief moment before he screamed again.

The door opened. "My lord, my lady, is everything all right?"

"Everything's fine." Edeline said without taking her eyes off of Gabriel. "Leave us."

"Should we call for the doctor?"

"Not now. Now close the door and leave us be!"

"Papa? Gam-ma? Gampapa?"

"Take Trevor back to our room immediately." Wolfram ordered, but Edeline turned her head to see the child easily dodge the hands that tried to catch him and toddle up to them.

He reached out and placed his hand on Gabriel's cheek. "Papa!"

Gabriel's eyes swung over, and he turned his head slightly to look at his son. He blinked in confusion as his cries began to trail off.

"Papa sad?" Trevor said, and then he leaned over and kissed his father tear damp face. "No more sad, Papa."

Gabriel went quiet, and he looked at Trevor, still blinking in confusion. He slowly raised one hand and lightly touched the tips of his claws to the child's face.

"Papa?" he said in apparent bewilderment. "Why?"

Edeline looked at her husband, and his eyes met hers for a moment before they looked down at their son and grandson again. Something important was happening.


End file.
